A Quiet Normal Life
by StardustOwl
Summary: Odin is dead and Loki just wants a quiet life on Midgard. Upon Captain America's discovery Tony tries to let go of the past and introduce Steve to 21st Century life. Things would be going a lot smoother if Hydra didn't think that the new treaty between Asgard, Midgard and Jotunheim would ruin their plans. Sequel to The Monster Under the Bed - summary of all relevant details inside.
1. The Gossip Magazine

_**Hi everyone and welcome to the first chapter of the sequel to 'T** **he Monster Under the Bed'.**_

 _ **So, to recap, what happened in the Monster Under the Bed?**_

 **\- Odin had a prophecy predicting the fall of his reign/Asgard. He decides to kill his new-born daughter, Hela (born after Thor in this AU)**

 **\- To avoid suspicion Odin steals Loki from Jotunheim and uses him to replace Hela**

 **\- Loki finds out he is a frost giant and Odin decides to use this knowledge to control him. The power goes to Odin's head and his behaviour worsens**

 **\- Through very angsty circumstances Loki has 4 children: Sleipnir, Hel, Jormungandr and Fenrir. Odin takes them from him**

 **\- Loki, Odin's ever-convenient scapegoat, is banished to earth instead of Thor, where he meets Jane, Darcy, Erik and eventually Tony**

 **\- They all work on building an Einstein-Rosen bridge together and during this time Loki begins to see that perhaps what Odin did to him was wrong and to heal slightly. He also gets together with Tony**

 **\- Odin awakens from the Odinsleep (over a month later than in canon), arrests Frigga (who has discovered Odin's abusive behaviour, attempted to make peace with Jotunheim and given the Jotuns the Casket of Ancient Winters, and started looking for Loki's children with Thor), and comes to earth to threaten the lives of Loki and his new friends**

 **\- Meanwhile, Thor rescues Hel, Fenrir and Jormungand from a version of the Odinsleep (like a forced coma in which they don't age), and Sleipnir from the stables where he's been trapped in the form of a horse**

 **\- Loki and Tony travel to Asgard to rescue Frigga from prison, and flee to Jotunheim with Frigga, Thor and the kids, where they discover that Laufey didn't abandon Loki**

 **\- Odin arrives on Jotunheim to wage war and retrieve the Casket that Frigga returned. With the help of Hela (Odin's child that has grown up on Helheim and now rules there), Hel (Loki's child) summons an army of the dead. Hel, Hela and Laufey eventually manage to kill Odin**

 **\- Loki feels guilt for the loss of his adoptive father (despite his abuse) and they eventually all return to Midgard, where a prototype Einstein-Rosen bridge has almost been completed. Darcy expects to become an ambassador in Asgard and help Frigga (acting as regent as Thor wants to live with Jane and tend to goats - long story) make Asgard a more democratic society. Everyone starts thinking about transportation to other realms through a bridge and political ties with Asgard and Jotunheim**

 _ **What's happened since the Monster Under the Bed?**_

 **\- Not much that shouldn't become quickly evident over the next few chapters, mostly they picked Bruce Banner up, got SHIELD off his back and now he's helping them with the Einstein-Rosen Bridge. They've also had Laufey and his family over for dinner a few times. Darcy's gone to Asgard to be awesome and political.**

 **I hope you all, new and old readers, enjoy the new story!**

 **04/12/2018**

 **Chapter One – The Gossip Magazine**

 **Does Tony Stark Have a Heart?**

 _Do we finally have the answer to the question that's haunted his fans and victims alike since his teenage years? Photos taken by a fan may finally uncover the truth of the playboy's hidden feelings…_

 _Mr Stark, 40, was spotted yesterday evening at Stonehenge, England, uncharacteristically trying to keep a low profile and holding hands with who we can only assume to be his lover._

 _As we're sure most of our readers are aware, the so-called 'Merchant of Death' has hit headline news in recent months, this time accused of using his blood-money to run experiments resulting in the illegal growth of an eight-legged horse. Ms Virginia "Pepper" Potts, the recently crowned CEO of Stark Industries, has assured us these images were doctored, but some doubt still remains._

 _Our readers may be shocked to learn that Mr Stark was not spotted with Ms Potts in our source's photos, but with someone very different._

 _That someone was… (wait for it!)… a man!_

 _Yes, you read that right. Take a look at our exclusive snaps below and see for yourselves!_

 _[x] - [Stone cold heart?: Mr Stark, sporting a neat and stylish pea coat, can be seen holding hands and laughing with a young, dark-haired man]_

 _But that's not even the best part! His new lover seems to have children, one of whom spent most of the visit on Mr Stark's shoulders._

 _[x] - [Enjoying the view: The child, who shares the same long, dark hair as his father, points to the ancient stones while his siblings play-fight around him]_

 _So, what do you, our readers, think? Has the world's most famous billionaire finally softened his iron heart, and accepted his identity as a gay man? - Here at CelebNews we're wondering if all of his flings with girls were really covering up for something - Or is this just the latest of his publicity stunts? Will he leave these children abandoned and his lover broken-hearted after a brief fling?_

 _His investors might have been able to overlook his clearly overcompensating playboy nature and his 'superhero' alter-ego that only leads to death and destruction, but the idea that 'Iron Man' might be having a little too much fun with another man certainly isn't going to go down well._

 _One thing's for certain, whether due to Stark's self-absorbed nature or the stress on Stark Industries, this mysterious stranger certainly better be prepared to have his heart broken!_

"J, delete this from their servers and give my lawyers a pay-rise, I don't want this article to see the light of day tomorrow and I especially don't want those pictures released," Tony ordered, sighing and rubbing a hand over his face. This was the last thing they needed, especially with the children due to start school tomorrow. Loki, who was currently standing beside Tony, gazing at the hologram of the article and looking pale, wanted the children to stay out of the limelight, and having grown up in the public eye himself, Tony couldn't agree more.

"This is… fairly brutal," Loki said, grimacing.

"Honestly, a biphobic article accusing me of murder and speculating about my love-life is hardly the worst thing that's been written about me," Tony said flippantly, trying to lighten the situation. "At least it was meant to be published tomorrow, we have time."

Loki nodded. "That's true. Thank you, Jarvis, for finding it."

"I'm sorry I convinced you not to put a glamour on me," Tony sighed, placing a comforting hand on Loki's shoulder.

"It's fine," Loki said. "I was using my magic the whole time we were there and I had been sure that no one had taken too much notice of us. We were both at fault, and there is no harm done, not yet."

But is it fine? Tony asked himself. Loki was looking rather grim, and how did he know that Loki was telling the truth? He didn't seem too bothered, and he had seemed to mean what he had said, but he knew for a fact that due to Odin's abuse Loki was excellent at hiding his true feelings, at least, when he wasn't feeling panicked. What if the article was right, what if he wasn't good enough for Loki? What if Loki thought the same?

No, he hadn't cared what the paparazzi thought about him since he was a teenager and he wasn't going to start now. He wouldn't break Loki's heart, things would be fine.

They had definitely taken a risk on their trip to England, Tony had been tired of wearing a glamour, wanting Loki and the children to be able to see him for himself for once. Loki had agreed, only slightly reluctantly (admitting that he did prefer to see his boyfriend's face when they went out together) and they had spent the afternoon walking around one of the most magical sites in Britain.

Tony hadn't been able to feel anything himself, but he had delighted in seeing the reactions of Loki and the children at being in such a magical environment. Loki, who always appeared to be at least slightly stressed (PTSD and an anxiety disorder would do that to you), had seemed to relax as he walked around the ancient stones, and the children had been even more excitable than usual, which was saying something.

After they'd walked around the stones multiple times they had gone to see the archaeological exhibits. Everyone had been very proud of Sleipnir, who had asked the staff multiple questions about the site in his strangely-accented English (spending 500 years as a horse had made speaking difficult for Sleipnir, but he had come along at an incredible speed) and had commented that the bodies buried there were older than most Asgardians. Hel had added darkly that they'd certainly lasted longer than Odin had. Tony hadn't bothered to stifle his laughter.

They had had a wonderful day together, celebrating the last day before the children began school, and Tony (and Loki, apparently) had been so sure that they'd been safe, and that no one had recognised him (or had at least those that had had been awkwardly British about it, and pretended not to, or convinced themselves that he was just someone with an uncanny likeness).

He looked back at the article that Jarvis was currently scrubbing from the gossip magazine's servers. "Jarvis, after you're done with the servers, hack into this woman's electronic devices, see what she's done with any copies of the pictures, delete them and do the same for whoever she's sent them to. Oh, and the person who took the pictures and sent them to the journalist, give them a mild virus."

"My pleasure, Sir," Jarvis said, and Tony was pleased to see that when he looked over at Loki again his boyfriend was smiling slightly in amusement.

"Before you delete all of them," Loki added, sounding much less grim than before – huh, perhaps Tony should send mild viruses to more people (he had worried that Loki, who got anxious about even slightly inconveniencing people, would object to this, but he supposed that when something happened to his children, it was different. Tony could relate to that, he was honestly surprised he wasn't feeling more vengeful right now). "Do you think you could enhance the copies of the pictures and save them, we didn't take nearly enough photos today."

"Of course, Loki," Jarvis replied and Loki lit up.

"That's a brilliant idea," Tony said, and he meant it, at least now they would get something slightly positive out of this mess.

Loki grinned at him, then kissed him, just because he could.

"Do you think you will be sleeping tonight?" he asked. "Only it's 1am and we need to be up early tomorrow."

Tony grimaced. His insomnia said no, he wouldn't be sleeping, but all the same he knew he should probably rest before their meeting at SHIELD tomorrow, and Loki's presence was calming. "I could try." He shrugged.

"Thank you," Loki said, and Tony supposed that would make staring at the ceiling for five hours worth it.

-Q-

Loki was eating breakfast with Erik, Jormungandr and Bruce when Tony stumbled into the kitchen, wishing everyone a slightly incoherent 'good morning'. Loki winced in sympathy at his lover's half-dead expression and passed him a cup of coffee. Tony downed it in several gulps and at this point Loki was very glad he'd decided to cool the coffee down with a spell.

"Thanks Lokes," Tony said, slumping into the free chair beside him and resting his head on Loki's shoulder. Loki smiled absentmindedly and ran his fingers through his hair.

"I take it you didn't manage to sleep for more than an hour," Bruce said in sympathy, sipping a herbal tea across the table from him.

"I'm assuming that applies to you to?" Tony said. "I didn't hear you come home yesterday evening."

"I'm worried about the levels of radiation the Einstein-Rosen Bridge will produce," Bruce said, nervously running his fingers through his hair.

"Don't be, it'll be fine," Tony said flippantly.

Loki and Erik exchanged slightly alarmed looks.

"The last time someone told me not to worry about radiation, I turned into… this." Bruce shot back amiably, gesturing at himself.

"I still think you should let the big green rage machine out to play."

"I have to disagree, Tony already blows up the lab enough and just once I'd like my work to remain intact," Erik drily, and however much Loki loved Tony, he had to admit that Erik was right.

It was at that moment that Thor and Jane came in with the other children, having spent time in the garden feeding the goats and the horses, and the entire house descended into chaos.

Loki watched Sleipnir in concern, noting how the child seemed to be wanting to make himself disappear while the other kids jumped raucously around him as they all assembled on the couch, ready for Loki to teleport them to school. Sleipnir was undoubtedly the most apprehensive about starting school, having not really ever been around children his own age before, or really that many people (except for battle – and Loki still cursed Odin for making his son live through that). Still, having friends at their own developmental stage was important, and so Loki was determined that the children should at least try. He was sure that Sleipnir would find his footing eventually.

He squeezed his son's shoulder gently. "You'll be okay," he said.

Sleipnir didn't look as if he believed him.

 ** _So, I hope you all enjoyed that!_**

 ** _Rather slow beginning, I know, but it will pick up quickly._**

 ** _Next up: Sleipnir starts school. It could be going a lot better._**

 ** _Fury asks Tony for the arc reactor plans again. It does not go well._**

 ** _Tony and Loki get donuts and make a plan to find Captain America._**


	2. Donuts

_**So, what can I say except life has soooo not been going to plan and I'm so incredibly sorry for the delay. I'm hoping I'll be able to stick to a better schedule from now on!**_

 _ **For a summary of the previous fic please see the last chapter. As to what happened in the last chapter: Tony and Loki stop a defamatory article being published about them and the children, the kids prepare to start school. It was kinda a slow beginning!**_

 _ **In this chapter:**_

 _ **Sleipnir starts school. It could be going a lot better.**_  
 _ **Fury asks Tony for the arc reactor plans again. It does not go well.**_  
 _ **Tony and Loki get donuts and make a plan to find Captain America.**_

 _ **So, thank you all so much for the follows, favourites and reviews, you guys are all so amazing!**_

 _ **04/02/19**_

 **Chapter Two - Donuts**

Sleipnir slowly copied down what was on the board, his hand shaking from the fine muscle control needed to hold a pen, his writing messy and difficult to read. He was sitting at a desk in the back corner of the classroom, having decided that he liked being able to see as many people as possible as helped make up for his loss of peripheral vision as a human. Next to him someone that might have been called Ben who was loudly discussing a Christmas present called 'Call of Duty' with the boys sharing the desk in front of them.

"Have you ever played it?" one of them asked.

Sleipnir startled, not expecting to be addressed, and shook his head. If he remembered rightly Jarvis said it was a videogame about war that kids his age liked playing (even if, technically, they weren't supposed to). If there was one thing that Sleipnir knew for certain it was that he had had enough of wars, being Odin's warhorse had perhaps been the worst part of his life, and he didn't even want to even think about them let alone pretend to be in one.

"Do you want to come over and play it with us tomorrow afternoon?" Ben asked.

Sleipnir bit his lip. The whole point of school was to make friends, he had years to learn the academic stuff the others had to understand almost immediately. And, before she'd left for Asgard, Darcy had said that one of the things Midgardian teenage boys liked doing was going to each other's houses and gaming, often consuming a lot of junk food and energy drinks (whatever they were). But he couldn't, he couldn't play a game about war, but what if they hated him when he refused and-

Thankfully, his thoughts were cut off when the teacher, Mr. Allan, came back into the room. Sleipnir tensed immediately and followed him with his eyes. Everyone at home had said that teachers were nothing to worry about. But they were authority figures, and that meant they were automatically dangerous.

"I had thought I'd asked you all to work quietly while I spoke to Miss Moreno," Mr Allan said icily. "I'm sure that you've all finished doing the questions on the board and I won't need to keep you in over recess… Aaron and Jamie, what's so interesting about your conversation that you don't feel the need to listen to me?"

Sleipnir's gaze flicked over to where two boys sat slouched in their chairs a few rows in front.

"Basically everything, Sir," the one with short, light brown curls said.

Sleipnir's knuckles turned white as he gripped the desk. What did this kid think he was doing?

"Is that true, Jamie?" Mr Allan asked. "I guess you've got all of the work done correctly then, if this class is so pointless to you."

"No," Jamie said. "We were talking about football instead. I don't really see why I should give a crap about maths. Like I said last week, it's not really gonna help me in my future is it?"

"You won't be saying that when your GPA gets you kicked off the football team."

"Well, I don't really care do I, they're all assholes. If they wanted to win they would actually listen to me."

"Jamie, get out," ordered Mr Allan, pointing to the door, "I'll speak to you in a minute."

But he won't just speak to him, will he? Sleipnir thought. If it were Odin, if it were anyone from Asgard (except for, apparently, his dad and Uncle Thor) that amount of disrespect from a minor would have warranted a severe whipping at the very least. Sleipnir was distantly aware that his breathing had started to become very fast, but he could do little else other than stare at Mr Allan.

"Whatever," Jamie said, picking up his stuff and walking to the door.

"And this time you'll wait outside the door for me to come and speak to you."

Jamie snorted. "No, I won't. I'm going home." And with that he stepped out of the classroom and slammed the door behind him.

Sleipnir bit his tongue as the teacher strode towards the closed door. Oh no, no way was Jamie getting out of this without debilitating injuries.

"Are you…crying?" Ben hissed incredulously, tapping him on the arm. Sleipnir threw himself backwards into the wall.

The whole classroom stared.

-Q-

Tony was distracted from his welding by the appearance of a shadow, obscuring the wiring he was working on. He looked up to see Fury standing behind him, looking seriously down at him.

"Stark," he began. "Secretary Pierce wants to know if you're going to hand over your plans for your arc reactor technology and the Einstein-Rosen bridge. The World Security Council are becoming increasingly concerned with your lack of openness about the project."

Tony bristled. Not this again. Time to get straight to the point. "The World Security council can take their 'concerns' and shove them up their-"

"Stark!"

"What?" he asked lazily, years of practice at being yelled at by authority figures allowing him to take Fury's tone in his stride.

Fury looked down at him in disappointment. "Stark, you're making a lot of people very agitated and that's not going to end well for you. If your father were here, he would know the value of sharing what he'd created. The only reason your arc reactor works is because of him, because of his discoveries that _he shared_. So, why don't you get off your selfish ass and do something to help people?"

"Well, gee, I don't know, Nick, maybe because I don't trust what weapons you'd create with it?" he snapped. "I don't trust you all not to start dealing from under the table."

"Not everyone's like Stane, Stark. Sometimes you have to trust that people will do the right thing."

"This is coming from you?"

"Yeah."

"The 'the last time I trusted someone I lost an eye' guy?"

"Look, Stark, I know it seems hard to believe, but when you have allies, you have to work with them."

"I am. I'm working with Bruce and-"

"I meant Pierce and the Council."

"Them being trustworthy is news to me. I've trusted people way more than I trust those guys and look where that got me. Look at what Natasha did."

"Saved your life?"

"Forget it."

"Stark."

"No. If the world wants this technology, if they want a treaty with other realms, then they come to me, and my team. And that's final."

"Is that so?" Nick said slowly. "Then what assurances can you give that you'll use the technology to people's best interest, that you won't start dealing under the table. Trust works both ways Stark, and the world knows that you're not infallible. If people think that we're just letting you do this of your own will, with no checks, then they're not going to be happy."

"Then don't tell them, spin them a load of bs, isn't that what you spies are good at?"

"Don't walk away from me, we haven't finished here Stark."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Nick," Tony said, sauntering towards the door. "Were you saying something, I suddenly just got this real craving for donuts, think I'll head out to that nice place in Maine, be back in a few hours."

"Stark."

"Bye dear, don't wait up for me."

-Q-

Tony fumed as he flew through the air.

How dare Fury try to use his dad against him? As if he knew anything about the man? At this thought, Tony conceded that perhaps he did, everyone seemed to know more about his father than him, the good things about his father at least. Tony guaranteed he knew more about the bad, child-neglecting sides than they did.

But what had Howard Stark done, apart from working on the Manhattan project and cruelly wiping out thousands of people mostly just to see if the bombs worked, leaving the survivors with disabilities and cancers, and creating Steve, the 'super-soldier' that he'd so promptly lost and then spent the rest of his life looking for.

Oh, he had left him a video which allowed him to save his own life, he did have that going for him. But Tony would be delusional if he didn't think that it was just convenient how the new element didn't poison him, and the whole reason for getting Tony to create a new element would be to carry on his own legacy, to get people to believe he was so amazing even after death. Not that he particularly needed help with that, and Howard's plan had definitely backfired when Tony had decided not to go public with his new element. Lots of tests into its uses were needed before he could do that; he couldn't let a discovery with such untapped and unknown potential fall into the hands of those who wouldn't use it for good.

And that bullshit message for him, saying he was Howard's 'greatest creation' was clearly just designed to manipulate him and to manipulate anyone else who watched it into thinking that Howard was a good parent. As if he hadn't effectively abandoned him and never even told Tony that he liked him. Huh, maybe Howard's propaganda attempt was where Fury got his idea that Tony could be made to do what SHIELD and the Council wanted by throwing his father in his face, thinking that Tony should logically care about what his father would have done, and whether or not he would be disappointed in him. As if Tony hadn't been trying to block out his father's views for the majority of his life.

Tony grimaced as he thought of all the battles to come. People would keep trying to get the arc technology and the plans for the E-R bridge. And he might actually be afraid of this if he hadn't put into place his own state of the art security to guard it, handpicked everyone on the team working on it and had Jarvis run a million background checks on them, and if he didn't have Loki and his kids to succeed him. According to Loki they should live at least a couple thousand years longer, and Tony knew he could trust them to keep the planet safe to the best of their ability. The political climate would change, but if they wanted a closer relationship with other realms then trusting in himself and his friends was the best he could do right now.

When he landed in front of the donut place he found Loki outside, dressed in a dark green, almost Asgardian-style shirt and black skinny jeans, his arms folded and one eyebrow raised mischievously.

"Fury told me where you were, and I decided I wanted donuts too. He didn't sound pleased at your decision."

"Really?" Tony snapped sarcastically. "I thought he sounded thrilled that I once again refused to hand the plans over to him, Pierce and the rest of the Council."

Loki bit his lip, seeming to draw in on himself slightly, and Tony deflated.

"Lokes, no, I'm not mad at you, Fury just pissed me off."

Loki grinned wryly. "I know that, just the idea of people being angry around me seems to make me anxious still. Odin's been dead for months and I know that it will take time I just…" he sighed.

Tony nodded in understanding. "Fathers, huh? Fury tried to use mine against me today. Made out that he would be helping and giving over the plans."

"It doesn't matter if he would," Loki said, frowning. "We've all agreed that the plans don't get given out beyond our circle. This is too dangerous, and I know there is something about Pierce that sets me on edge, even though Jarvis hasn't been able to find anything. Though, they all set me on edge, I suppose. We can't trust anyone we're not certain about, not yet."

"I know," Tony sighed. "I just, I don't even want to think about him, I wish people would stop acting like I'll never measure up to him."

"You are easily the better man, I know you Tony," Loki said firmly.

"Tell that to the entire world."

"Tell that to all those who idolise you as a super hero."

Tony smiled despite himself.

"And my children definitely wouldn't prefer Howard over you."

Tony laughed drily. "No, I guess not… I think Fury's right though, Howard would have helped, even though it's the wrong decision, he wouldn't pass off an opportunity like this to show off his genius. He'd probably even stop searching for Steve to do so."

"We should find him," Loki said suddenly, his eyes alight with determination.

"Who?" Tony asked, completely bewildered by Loki's sudden pronouncement, something that didn't happen often.

"Steve. The man your father wasted his life and ruined yours looking for. With my magic and your technology, if he's to be found, we will find him. What better thing to get Hela to rub into your father's face in Helheim?"

"That is the single most insane idea I've ever heard. And I have at least a hundred insane ideas per day." Tony said, a grin spreading over his face.

Loki raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Let's do it."

They grinned at each other, and kissed in a way that could have turned into full on making out in the middle of the street if Tony didn't feel like his mind had been set ablaze by this new idea.

"Right, we need brain food," he said, pushing open the shop door.

"No, wait!" Loki said frantically, waving his hands desperately and muttering something.

"What?" Tony asked, confused, still holding the door open for Loki.

Someone screamed and something else smashed.

"Iron Man…" the cashier breathed as Tony swung round to gauge the situation.

"Can your suit turn invisible now?" a little boy questioned, clutching a plastic dinosaur and gazing up at Tony with an awed expression on his chocolate-smeared face.

"You cloaked us, didn't you?" Tony asked.

Loki shrugged nonchalantly, sliding past Tony to order donuts and leaving him alone with the tide of people that now wanted his autograph.

 _ **So, I hope you all enjoyed that!**_

 _ **BTW you guys have my** **express permission** **to literally come into my inbox and scream at me if I haven't updated in a week's time.**_

 _ **Next up:**_ ** _Sleipnir and Loki talk_**

 ** _The search for Captain America begins_**

 ** _(Um, so, it would be great if you guys could leave a review, even if it's just a word, just so I know that you're still reading and you're still interested in where this is going. Obviously, no pressure, I used to get serious anxiety about leaving reviews so absolutely zero pressure, it would just mean so much to me if some of you could!)_**


	3. Searching

_**So, I managed to get a chapter out within a week. Yay!**_

 _ **If you missed the last update, chapter 1 contains a summary of what happened in 'The Monster Under the Bed' and chapter 2 contains a reminder of what happened in chapter 1.**_

 _ **What happened last time?**_

 _ **\- Fury gave Tony grief for not handing over the Einstein-Rosen bridge and arc reactor plans over to Pierce/The World Security Council**_

 _ **\- Sleipnir (and the other kids) have started school. Sleipnir freaked out because of the abuse he suffered from Odin.**_

 _ **\- Tony and Loki have decided to look for Captain America**_

 _ **Thank you all so much for the reviews, follows and favourites, you guys are amazing!**_

 _ **10/02/19**_

 **Chapter Three - Searching**

"We did finger-painting!" Hel said excitedly. "Look at what I did, can you guess what it is?"

Loki looked down at the smudged grey picture...it could, with a bit of imagination, have been an extremely-ill spider.

"Why don't you tell me?" Loki asked, going for the safe option.

"It's Dum-E and U and Butterfingers!" she exclaimed. "They're having a party."

"Oh?"

"With cake," Hel said firmly.

"It's wonderful Hel," Loki said, and meant it. "I think you should show it to them when we get back, and then we'll see about hanging it up somewhere."

"Do you think Uncle Tony would want it in his workshop?" Hel asked.

"I'm sure he'd love to have it there."

"Yay!" and with that Hel threw her arms tightly around him again. Loki carefully prised the picture out of her grasp before it could get even more crumpled.

"Look, your brothers are coming now too."

Fenrir and Jormungandr came speeding towards them, Jormungandr's jumper was trailing on the dusty ground behind him and Fenrir was smeared with paint.

"Father!" Jormungandr said. "You need to find Harry and tell him that he's wrong, this isn't a woolly mammoth, it's a _bilgesnipe_ , because he keeps trying to tell me it's a mammoth but he's _wrong_!"

Loki looked down at Jormungandr's finger painting. It was, for a child in the middle of their second century, a very good drawing, and if you put your head on one side and squinted, it did, actually, look very much like a bilgesnipe.

"Perhaps," Loki said diplomatically, having no idea what a 'woolly mammoth' was, "a woolly mammoth is just what they call bilgesnipes on Midgard."

As Loki lead the children into a secluded alleyway and got them ready to teleport, he beamed, he felt near-ready to explode with happiness. His children loved school; they loved their teacher, they loved singing songs and playing games, they loved being dinosaurs at recess with the other kids, they loved learning how to write, they loved everything (except for being told that their bilgesnipe was a woolly mammoth, apparently). This was exactly what he had hoped for, his children being happy, carefree, _normal_ children, not worrying about all that they'd been through in the past.

The elation he felt turned abruptly into a void of dread in his stomach as soon as he saw Sleipnir though. He was so pale and shaky he seemed ill. As he stumbled towards them, almost in a daze, Loki rushed forwards to meet him. Sleipnir flinched slightly as Loki wrapped his arms around him, but then he melted into the hug, gripping Loki back so tightly Loki was slightly worried about his ability to breathe.

Loki glanced around briefly, noting the smirks of some of the other students as they stared at the two of them (perhaps, here, like on Asgard, hugging your parents was not something an older child did in public?) and then caught the gaze of a middle-aged man. His hair was flecked with grey and he wore a blue tie with maths equations dotted over it. He stared at Loki, eyes narrowed in suspicion, before grimacing and turning away to walk back inside. This, Loki thought, was not good.

-Q-

Mr Allan frowned as he walked back into the building.

There was something clearly very wrong with Sleipnir; he was going to find out what it was.

He had tried to talk to Sleipnir after the lesson, tried to see if he could get any explanations out of him as to why the kid had been silently crying and had thrown himself back against a wall. The confrontation between himself and Jamie had clearly scared Sleipnir, but why? Surely he should be used to teenagers being little shits and teachers getting pissed off with them? The explanation that he kept falling back on was that Sleipnir must have suffered from or be suffering from abuse, perhaps he even post-traumatic stress disorder?

This is why he needed to get a new job. Not only was the workload too much, the pay too shit, the students too argumentative, you also had to deal with shit like this. The problem with teaching kids is that you were responsible for them, you had a duty of care, and you spent your free time worrying about them. With kids like Jamie it was easier, you didn't know if they were acting out because that was what they did, or whether it was because they had a crap home-life, and you probably never would know. So you did your best and tried to not think about it. With kids like Sleipnir it was more serious, there was something very obviously wrong. Not that Sleipnir had told him anything, he had just frozen, his breath coming in short gasps. Mr Allan had eventually given up, pressed one of the chocolates he kept hidden in his desk that were reserved for particularly stressful marking into Sleipnir's palm, assured him he could come and talk to him about anything he wanted anytime, and sent him to Lunch.

After filling in a concern slip and placing it in Sleipnir's file he had got on with the rest of the day as best he could. After teaching his last period of the day he had gone outside with the students, hoping to see if he could catch a glimpse of Sleipnir's parents, try to get a feel for what he was dealing with. His eyes widened with shock when he saw a tall man with long dark hair run over and throw his arms round the child. Sleipnir shuddered and then threw his arms round the man that looked like an older version of him and was almost certainly his dad. Mr Allan's eyes narrowed. That was...unexpected. He had expected the kid to be ignored by a parent, to be shouted at, or maybe even to walk home alone. His eyes caught the man's, who looked almost ill with worry.

He turned away hurriedly and walked back inside. Well, whatever issues Sleipnir had they were probably not caused by his dad, which was unexpected. The question was who were they caused by? His Mum? Another family member? This would call for some more investigating.

-Q-

"Tony?" Loki called as soon as they had arrived back in the mansion.

"Yes, dear?" Tony said, swooping up the lab stairs to greet the kids. He had promised he would be there for them when they got back but Loki had been half-expecting him to be holed up in the labs, completely obsessed with finding Captain America. Not for any malicious reason, more because he would get caught up in something and not realise the time. But here he was.

Loki smiled softly, his boyfriend was such a good person, even if he couldn't always see it, and this was proof that he could never become Howard.

"Do you mind looking after the triplets for a bit?"

"No problem," Tony said, blowing a raspberry on Fenrir's stomach and then swinging him around while the boy giggled uncontrollably. He gave Sleipnir an encouraging smile before he and Loki disappeared again.

"Now," Tony said, "who wants to see the cool stuff I ordered for the swimming pool last night?"

-Q-

Sleipnir snuggled next to Loki. They were sitting on the sand on Tony's private beach, looking out at the crashing waves. It was about as far away from the stables as you could get, miles and miles of open space stretched out in front of them and the smell of the sea-breeze filled their nostrils. Sleipnir had a supply of juice boxes by his side, they were sweet and tasted like nothing he'd had on Asgard, and Loki had brought them along as he knew they helped to distract and calm him.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Loki asked quietly.

"I don't want to go back to school," Sleipnir mumbled, gripping Loki tighter.

"Why?"

"Because everyone thinks I'm so _weird_!" Sleipnir sobbed. "I don't know how to talk to people and my accent's weird and I keep doing stupid weird stuff and I had an anxiety attack today and..." he cut off to start crying in earnest and Loki's heart broke.

"Sleipnir," Loki said, rubbing his son's back. "Of course you don't know how to talk to people and of course your accent's a bit odd, you haven't grown up like they have, you've spent five hundred years as a horse being abused by that _monster_. That's something that they can never understand. You don't have to be perfect, you're stronger and have been through more than they ever have."

Sleipnir hiccoughed. "It doesn't feel like I'm stronger, not when I flinch from everything, not when I start crying and panicking when everyone else is fine."

Loki looked into the distance. "I do the same," he said. "Tony says it's normal, it's a normal response to trauma. It will fade with time, sometimes things will get a bit worse, sometimes they'll get better, but it will be okay in the end. You've just got to keep fighting, both of us do.

"What happened that made you have an anxiety attack?"

"This kid was really disrespectful to a teacher and I couldn't understand _why_ he'd do it! I just wanted to scream at him to stop. I kept thinking about what would happen if he'd acted like that on Asgard, about how badly he would have been beaten. About what Odin and some of the other people did to me when I misbehaved...or when you misbehaved."

Loki's breath caught in his throat and he choked out a sob. "I am so, so sorry for that," he said, holding Sleipnir tighter, trying not to think of all the times that Odin had punished Sleipnir instead of him to hurt Loki. It had been very effective, Loki had found watching Odin punishing Sleipnir for Loki's infractions even worse than being punished for them himself. "If I could have stopped him..."

"You would have, I know, you did your best," Sleipnir said, his voice muffled as he clung to Loki. "And he punished you for my misbehaviour sometimes too, so I suppose we are even... That was supposed to be a joke, Father," he clarified after Loki didn't respond.

"Oh," Loki said. "Ha, ha?" He could almost feel Sleipnir rolling his eyes at him. There was a pause for a while as they looked out at the ocean.

"Father, I've been thinking, you can't have been much older than me when you had me, could you?"

"No I wasn't," Loki said grimly, trying to keep his voice under control and not let the sudden panic seep in, trying not to imagine Sleipnir going through what he had.

"Did you want me?" Sleipnir asked, so quietly that Loki wouldn't have heard him if he hadn't been listening very carefully.

"Of course I did!" Loki said firmly. "I hadn't been planning on having a child and the circumstances of your conception were... less than ideal, but-"

"How did you have sex with a horse?"

Loki coughed. "That, I think, is a conversation for another day." _Preferably another millennium_ , he added in his head.

"But why, I want to know, I _deserve_ to know about my other father!"

"Sleipnir, I understand that you have a right to know, but it's not a very nice story, and you're already very upset, I don't want to make you more anxious." He sighed. "I swear to you I will tell you when you are older."

"Alright," Sleipnir grumbled. "But do you want me? Because all I do is freak out and be weird and cause problems."

"Sleipnir," Loki said, his voice breaking. "I have wanted you ever since you were but a spark of life inside of me, I have wanted you your entire life and I will always want you. You are my son and my love for you is unconditional. You are wonderful and I would do anything for you. I don't care that you 'freak out' because if anyone can understand that I can, and, I think, the weird people are the best people...take Tony for instance..."

Sleipnir snorted and then started bawling into Loki's shirt. Loki held him tight and rocked him gently as he stared out across the crashing waves.

"Do I still have to go to school tomorrow?" Sleipnir asked after he had calmed down.

Loki sighed. "Yes," he said. "You can't let this defeat you, you'll be okay in the end. Try for me, just for two weeks, and if it doesn't work out we'll see about putting off sending you to school for a while."

Loki could practically hear the cogs in Sleipnir's brain turning as he considered the proposition.

"Okay," he said. "As long as Tony helps me with my maths homework."

"Done." Loki said. "Now drink your juice up you've become very dehydrated."

-Q-

"And then," Tony said. "The magician looked at the illusion he'd created and laughed. The dwarfs weren't really gonna sew his mouth shut, because that would not be cool!"

"And then Dum-E sprays them with the fire-extinguisher!" Hel interrupted, cackling. Loki blinked. Well, this was a deviation from the children's normal favourite bedtime story.

"Yes, that's exactly what happens," said Tony.

"And then they fly away on a dragon," Fenrir said.

"No! They should use an Iron Man suit!" Jormungandr argued.

"That's stupid!"

"What if the magician uses the Iron Man suit and Dum-E, U and Butterfingers ride the dragon?" Sleipnir suggested, clearly wanting to avoid conflict.

There came a chorus of mumbled agreements.

"And on that note I think it's time for you kiddiewinks to go to sleep." Tony interrupted.

"No! It's too early!" That was Hel.

"But you want to have loads of energy so you can have fun at school tomorrow, don't you want to be a dinosaur at lunch again?"

"Yeah!" Hel exclaimed.

"Come on then," that was Sleipnir's I'm-a-responsible-big-brother voice. "It's time for us to go to sleep."

Loki poked his head round the door. His four children were snuggled into the queen sized bed that they shared. Loki had suggested that they all get their own beds, but Fenrir, Hel and Jormungandr had spent over fifty years sharing a bed when they were hiding from Odin and they weren't about to stop now, and Loki wasn't about to take away something that made them feel safe. Sleipnir had decided to join then, to protect them and keep them company, he said, and to make sure they weren't silly and went to sleep, but probably because he felt safer with them too. Sleipnir would likely wake up early and sneak off to read and surf the internet. Jarvis was teaching him about memes, whatever they were.

After Loki had hugged and kissed them all and sang calming songs for the benefit of the triplets (including not only Asgardian lullabies, but also a song from 'The Land Before Time' at Jormungandr's request) he slipped out of the room after Tony.

"Thank you for looking after them this evening. You're so good with them, better than I had ever hoped, and they're so happy... I'm so... I can't thank you enough," Loki said softly as they walked along the corridor and down into the workshop. "I know I should have been more help but..." he trailed off.

Tony rested a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Lokes it's okay," he said. "You were feeling panicky after your conversation with Sleipnir and you needed time to calm down and recharge, it's okay, it happens, it's normal."

"But I feel like I need to be there for them."

"And now you can be even more there for them because you've recharged."

Loki sighed. "What would I do without you?"

"Be only slightly less awesome. Come on, I want to find Dad's Greatest Creation."

-Q-

It took them three hours and 27 minutes to construct an algorithm using Loki's magic and various satellites.

"You ready?" Loki asked.

"For your freaky tech version of scrying? Yes." Tony nodded decisively. Loki could see from his lover's eyes that he was just about brimming with anxiety, but his determination was stronger, he would do this.

"Okay," Loki said, putting a hand on a collection of wires and closing his eyes, beginning to chant. Two minutes later a ping came from Jarvis's speakers and a red blip appeared on Tony's screen. Loki opened his eyes and smiled. "Found him," he said.

"Really?"

Loki nodded.

"Well, that was anti-climactic," Tony said.

-Q-

They left the sleeping kids in the care of Bruce, Jane and Thor, and Loki teleported them to the coordinates that had appeared on the screen. The wind howled around them and Tony was glad he'd decided to wear the suit he had specially built for journeys to Jotunheim, a snowstorm couldn't stop his body temperature from being toasty warm. Loki was still wearing his black skinny jeans and green shirt but his skin shifted to blue upon his arrival. Loki might still have issues with his jotun appearance but Tony had to admit that it was useful, also, arguably more importantly, he had to admit that Loki looked hot.

"So, do your melty magic and lets get this over with," Tony said, gritting his teeth, glad that Loki wouldn't be able to tell that he was shaking through his armour. Okay he got to one up his dad, but what if Captain America was still alive, like Howard thought he would be, what then? He didn't think he could take any snide comments from his father's golden boy, couldn't stand more years of not being good enough. It didn't matter though, Rogers's opinion shouldn't matter and goddammit it _wouldn't_. He was his own man, and it was unlikely Rogers would want to stick around anyway.

Anyway, he'd probably be dead, no one survived being frozen solid, so why should a super soldier? Especially after 70 years. No, it would be fine. He would find the captain's dead body, bring it back, be hailed a hero, and spit on his father's grave, and that would be that. Job done, mystery solved, fuck you Howard.

He watched as Loki melted a hole in the wreckage of the aircraft and created a path towards the body. Slowly, agonisingly, the ice dripped away, and there, lying still as stone and frozen, was a foot, a leg, a SHIELD. And they'd done it, they'd actually done it, they'd found the body of Captain America. This was one of the most incredible feelings he'd ever felt, complete vindication, absolute triumph and smugness and then...

"He's alive," Loki said.

Tony's good mood shattered.

 _ **So, I hope you all enjoyed that! Please let me know what you thought**_

 _ **Next up: Laufey, Frigga and the rest of Loki's family come over for dinner.**_

 _ **\- "Tony..." Bruce asked hesitantly. "Did you clone Captain America?"**_

 _ **\- Steve comes to the realisation that some people from the future are blue.**_


	4. A Dinner Out-of-Time

_**So, welcome back! It's been 2 and a half weeks (sorry!) but it is definitely better than the rate I was updating at before, so I am fairly certain I will have the next update out soon.**_

 _ **For a summary of 'The Monster Under the Bed' please see the first chapter.**_  
 _ **What's happened so far in 'A Quiet Normal Life'?**_  
 _ **\- Everyone's living in Malibu together**_  
 _ **\- Sleipnir (and the other kids) have started school. Sleipnir freaks out because of the abuse he suffered from Odin**_  
 _ **\- Tony, Loki etc. are building an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Secretary Pierce, the World Security Council and Fury want its plans. Tony is uncooperative**_  
 _ **\- Loki and Sleipnir talk about school and Odin, and Loki convinces Sleipnir to keep trying to go to school for a bit**_  
 _ **\- Tony and Loki find Captain America**_

 _ **Hel = Loki's daughter, Goddess of Death**_  
 _ **Hela = Odin and Frigga's daughter, Queen of Helheim, Goddess of Life**_  
 _ **They both share a sort of psychic link. There are also a number of different 'Lady Death's who run a variety of interconnected underworlds.**_

 _ **Thank you guys all so much for the follows, favourites and reviews!**_

 _ **01/03/19**_

 **Chapter Four - A Dinner Out-of-Time**

"Hey, Helblindi," Darcy asked one of Loki's space-alien brothers. "Could you pass the sweet-and-sour pork?"

"Of course," Helblindi replied, putting down the chopsticks Thor was teaching him how to use (Darcy thought the big guy had really got the hang of them during her time away in Asgard) and passing her the bowl.

"Thanks dude."

"You're very welcome." Helblindi shot her a grin. Darcy ginned back. It had been kinda weird meeting them earlier, she mused, but hey, she'd seen weirder things than really tall blue people over the last few months, and they seemed super nice so far. They _definitely_ seemed better than most of the Asgardian nobles anyway.

"So, then what did... Fre...?"

Darcy turned her attention back to Bruce, "Freyjr."

"Freyjr - thank you - say?" Bruce asked, before forking some biryani into his mouth.

"He was all like 'I don't think we should listen to what Midgardians have to say, not least a Midgardian _woman_ , because here on Asgard we are _so-_ mighty and we think women are only good for 'decoration'," Darcy snorted. "Like, I'm sorry I want to drag your butts out of the dark ages. 'Why should the peasants vote?' oh I don't know, because they're _people_? Ugh."

"Things have been bad," Frigga confirmed, delicately cutting a slice of pizza into small chunks. "Arguably we did commit regicide."

"By helping to kill Odin?"

"Yes." Frigga nodded. "We can argue that Odin was out of his mind, that he wasn't a fit king and his actions have led to the slaughter of many people. But then the council members state that if they deem that _I_ am not a good ruler, does that not give them the right to dispose of me? I want to give the people more choice, to make them feel as if they have some say in the running of the realm, I do not want to be as Odin once was. However, giving the people power to disagree gives them power over myself. I cannot try to set up a constitutional monarchy and then throw people in jail for speaking against me."

"You absolutely could, Mum," Hela said.

"Yes," Frigga said. "But that would rather undermine my position as someone who doesn't want to run a 'police state' as Darcy terms it. It has not all been bad though," she brightened, "many of the lower classes do like the idea of having a voice, we have rounded up most of the radicals who were doing more than just complaining, and I've survived five attempts on my life so far."

"I tased two of the assassins," Darcy added. She was still super-proud of that event. Afterwards, she'd had to explain that she really didn't have magic and had promised to get all her handmaidens tasers. That was something she needed to remember to speak to Tony about before she left.

"This food is most delicious, Thor, what did you say it was called?" Byleistr's voice came from the end of the table.

"A roast potato," Thor replied.

"Though do tell us if you start to feel ill," Loki encouraged, looking worried, or in other words wearing his normal expression. "What we're feeding you is very different from frozen meat."

"We'll be fine," Laufey assured him. "We want to try all types of your Migardians' cuisine. I, for one, would be very happy importing apples once you have the Bridge finished and your politicians are somewhat in agreement."

Just then, Hela tapped on a glass and got to her feet. Darcy glanced up at her friend in surprise. "So," she said, rearranging her brightly-coloured sundress and glancing round at them all. "I just wanted to say that, well, do you remember how on Jotunheim I talked about Lady Death leaving the throne to me and going to look for this Titan called Thanos? Well, he hasn't stopped killing people, and-"

"Hela," Loki interrupted, his eyes flickering pointedly to his children. Darcy could see that they looked tense and all but Hel looked scared. "Is this really an appropriate conversation to be having right now."

Hela grimaced. "I just wanted to tell you all that I'm leaving, it's gone on too long, and he's getting closer to here. I need to figure out what he's doing, and how to stop him, before he gets too powerful, even if all the other Deaths don't want me too."

"Why wouldn't they want you to?" Darcy asked, frowning.

"He's sacrificing people in their name, it kinda gives them a thrill and boosts their power." Hela shrugged. "But, there needs to be a balance between the living and the dead, and he's upsetting it."

Loki frowned. "Is that why Hel's magic has been getting significantly stronger lately?"

"I expect so." Hela nodded. "But, the thing is, I need to tell you all about this tonight because you're not going to be able to contact me through Hel anymore, I'll be too far away."

"Does that mean you're not going to be in my head anymore?" Hel spoke up quietly.

"I'm afraid so."

"No!" Hel yelled. "You can't do that to me! You're always there when I need you, you can't just go!

"Excuse me," Jarvis interrupted. "I feel the need-"

"Not now J," Tony said.

"But Sir, it's important-"

"Jarvis, I can guarantee imminent magical meltdown is-"

A man burst into the room. Darcy stared at him. There was no denying that he was Hot. There was also no denying that saying he looked freaked out would be an understatement.

"Stark! What-" he asked, and then cut off abruptly. "Where...? Why are those people _blue_?"

-Q-

Steve groaned and opened his eyes. Then he shut them again. He was fairly sure this was the most confortable bed he had ever slept in and the sheets had no right to be so luxuriously soft, he'd never felt anything like it! One thing was for certain, he'd grown up in the depression and there was a war on, he'd take what he get for as long as he could justify it, because the bed had no right to be so comfortable.

Steve's eyes swung open again and he stared up at the shadow covered ceiling. He was right, the bed did have no right to be so comfortable. So where the hell was he?

He pushed himself up and looked around the room. As he rose, the room seemed to lighten and he could suddenly see into every corner. It was far bigger than any room had any right to be, especially as it only seemed to contain a really oversized double bed and a very fancy dresser. There was something that could have been considered to have been a painting on one of the walls. In Steve's opinion it wasn't very good.

He pushed himself out of bed and gasped as his foot sank into the carpet. Was everything so soft here? Steve allowed himself to grin as he stood up and wriggled his feet in the carpet. The only comparison he could come up with was if a carpet had somehow been fused with very clean and dry grass. It felt wonderful.

He made his way over towards a dark reflective panel, smiling at every luxurious step. He thought it was a window, it must be, just bigger and more elegant than he'd ever seen. It practically made up one of the walls without any breaks that he could see, and it was _curved_. Steve pressed his face to the cool glass and peered through. Yes, it was a window. It was night outside and he could see stars twinkling in the sky. When he looked down he could just make out a beach and some sand. Where was he? Well, wherever it was it was incredible, and definitely owned by someone who had more money than sense. Stark.

Then he remembered.

The shield, the missions, _Bucky!_ , and then he had been on a plane and fighting Red Skull and Peggy had been crying and he had crashed the plane. The last thing he could remember had been an all consuming cold.

Had he died?

This wasn't what he thought heaven would be, not at all. Everything was clean and comfy and everything, but it really wasn't his style.

No, he decided. Something must have happened after he'd got in the water, and he'd just forgotten it. For some reason he couldn't remember it however hard he strained his mind, but he was sure it would come back to him, he had an enhanced memory from being a super soldier after all. And now, he must be at Stark's, because he was the only person Steve knew that could even think up a place as strange and futuristic as this.

But, it was a bit too strange, a bit too different. He'd been to some of Howard's places before and they hadn't looked anything like this.

Maybe he'd lost more memory than he'd thought he had. How old was Peggy, had he even been to the dance with her?

"Stark?" he yelled experimentally.

"Mr Stark is downstairs, Captain Rogers" a voice replied. It sounded almost like Jarvis had done. A new butler then? No, it sounded too similar. Had Jarvis just gotten older? "If you could just wait-"

"Jarvis, where are you?"

"I'm not sure how to explain, Sir," Jarvis said.

Steve frowned, surely it couldn't be that difficult. But then again Stark did make his butler help him with some strange inventions.

"Jarvis, how long ago did I crash the plane?"

"That was rather a while ago, I'm afraid, if you would just wait for-"

But Steve was done waiting. He needed to know what was going on, he needed to know where he was, he needed to know what had happened to everyone, what had happened to Peggy. Had they been on their dance?

Steve rushed down the stairs and towards a room in which a lot of people were clearly congregated. Stark would be in there, he would never miss a party, he would explain things.

He burst into the room. "Stark! What-" he said, and then stopped. Which one of them was Howard? "Where-" No, wait- "why are those people blue?"

Blue! He'd never seen blue people before. Where was he that blue people existed? Maybe he really was dead. Perhaps he was dreaming.

"Tony..." a man with dark, curly hair asked hesitantly. "Did you clone Captain America?"

"He's Captain America?" a woman with long, dark hair and an entirely too revealing blouse for polite company demanded.

"Look, I can explain," a man said, striding easily towards him. He looked like Howard but at the same time he didn't look like Howard at all. "I didn't clone him, yes he is Captain America." Not-Howard extended a hand towards Steve. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

"What is happening?" Steve asked, his mind whirring. "Where's Howard, are you his brother, his cousin?"

"Actually no, I'm his son."

"You can't be," Steve said. "Howard doesn't have a son."

"Yeah, we're gonna need to catch you up a bit," Howard's... son?... grimaced. "Jarvis didn't think you'd wake up so soon or we would have cancelled the party. Look... would you like anything to eat?"

"Not really," Steve replied. He probably could have eaten, he did feel a bit dizzy and his metabolism always needed feeding, but he needed to find out what was going on more, and he wasn't going to let anything distract him from that."

"Okay then," the man said. "The thing is, there's no easy way to say this and I am really regretting saving you right now. I swear, if I'd thought about the whole explaining part, I would never have done it. Anyway, look, it's January 4 2011, you've been a capsicle for 65 years."

"But-" Steve spluttered. There was no way this could be true, could it? "How?"

"Do you remember your plane going down into the ice?" Steve nodded. "Right, well, you were frozen solid. Howard dedicated his life to finding you, but he didn't manage it. Loki-" he indicated a thin young man whose dark hair fell to just below his ears- "and I found you last night."

"When you say he dedicated his life..." Steve said slowly, trailing off and not daring to finish the question.

"He's dead, Steve, he died in a car accident almost twenty years ago now."

Steve felt like all the breath had been knocked out of him and he slumped back against the archway. None of this was true, it couldn't be, and yet...

"We're really sorry for your loss," a woman said, and Steve looked up, blinking back tears. She had mousy brown hair and seemed dwarfed by a huge man who had even more muscles than Steve did. The blue men were sitting around her, but Steve did not have the mental energy to deal with them right now.

"I'm sure we could arrange for you to visit his grave," Jarvis's voice spoke up again.

"That would be great Jarvis, thanks," Steve said, trying to manage a smile and failing miserably. "Hey, at least you're still here."

"Um, Steve," the younger Stark said, almost apologetically. "That's not Jarvis, he died too. I made this Jarvis as a replacement."

"Oh," Steve said, unsure as to whether be upset about Jarvis's death or to be morbidly intrigued as to how you made a person. He opted for the latter as confusion was better than grief.

"How did you make another Jarvis... was it like in Frankenstein?" he hazarded.

Stark laughed. "No. God, how do I explain this to someone from the Dark Ages..."

"I'm not-"

"He's like, a machine, that can think and has feelings and kinda runs my house."

"Don't worry Steve," the small, dark haired boy spoke up. "Jarvis is super helpful and he can explain anything you want him to. He can play you holograms and tell you all about Midgard and he lives in all the walls, so if you ever have a question (or are feeling really scared) he'll be there to help!"

"Thank you," Steve said. There didn't seem to be anything else to say. "What about..."

"Peggy?" Stark asked, and he nodded. "She's still around."

Steve let out a shaky laugh. "Yeah, that sounds right, she's too stubborn to let death take her. I-"

"Where's Hel?" the skinny man exclaimed suddenly, leaping out of his seat.

"She went with Hela when Steve arrived," the same boy explained. "I think she's gone to calm down."

The man collapsed back into his chair. "Thank the Norns. Though I can't believe I didn't notice she was gone!"

"Worry not, Brother," the muscled man said. "I too, was very distracted by the arrival of Steve."

Howard's son walked over and put his arm around the clearly distressed man. "Hey, it's okay," he said, his body language and tone making Steve wonder about the nature of their relationship. "I've told you about my dad right, you know no one else can focus on anyone else once Steve comes along."

The man smiled wryly.

Suddenly, there came a whine and a pawing at his feet. Steve looked down in surprise to see a grey puppy. Smiling softly, he crouched down to stroke the small animal. Everything else was way to much to cope with, he thought, but a puppy? A puppy was something he could cope with right now.

 _ **So, I hope you all enjoyed that!**_

 _ **Next up: Steve tries to adjust to modern day life, but he keeps reeling with new discoveries and trying to deal with the old ones.**_  
 _ **Steve and Tony talk.**_  
 _ **Sleipnir makes a friend.**_

 _ **Also, an important question: should Stucky have been a thing? Should Steve have just been pining after Bucky but not really knowing what he felt/realising it and hating himself for it because of the attitudes of the time? Should they just have been friends? Idk :/**_


	5. Adjusting

**_Hi guys, and welcome back! I think I'm doing better at semi-regular updates so lets hope I keep this up!_**

 ** _For what happened in the first fic see the summary in the first chapter._**  
 ** _What's happened so far in this fic?_**  
 ** _\- Everyone's living in Malibu together_**  
 ** _\- Sleipnir (and the other kids) have started school. Sleipnir freaks out because of the abuse he suffered from Odin_**  
 ** _\- Tony, Loki etc. are building an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Secretary Pierce, the World Security Council and Fury want its plans. Tony is uncooperative_**  
 ** _\- Loki and Sleipnir talk about school and Odin and Loki convinces Sleipnir to keep trying to go to school for a bit_**  
 ** _\- Tony and Loki find Captain America_**  
 ** _\- Laufey, Frigga and the rest of Loki's family come over for dinner._**  
 ** _\- Steve wakes up in the 21st century, he comes downstairs to find a) a room full of people (some of which are blue) b) that most of his friends are dead. Fun times! :|_**

 ** _Thank you guys all so much for reviews/follows/favourites, you're all awesome!_**

 ** _15/03/19_**

 **Chapter Five - Adjusting**

"Mr Rogers," new-fangled-Jarvis announced, causing Steve to jump slightly at the interruption, the yellow crayon in his hand narrowly avoiding scraping over the carefully drawn words on his pilfered sketchpad. "I thought you ought to know that your new clothes have been delivered. Thor has signed for them and wishes to know if your request to be alone extends to him bringing them to you."

Steve frowned, wondering if he could bear to be with another stranger in this odd new world where people were blue and puppies could turn into children. The latter had given him the fright of his life. He had almost whacked the kid on instinct before he'd realised it was a boy and not an imminent threat. Though it wouldn't have mattered whether he had been able to stop himself because the next second had found him slammed backwards into the wall by an invisible force. Through the haze of plaster dust he had been threatened by the younger Stark (Tony, he reminded himself), pleaded his innocence, demanded to know what had just happened, been given a confusing explanation about magic from the boy's father - Loki - who seemed to alternative between intense anxiety for the shape-shifting child (who seemed fine), rage and panic. In the past Steve would have scoffed at the idea of magic existing, but that was before he'd been flung into the wall by it and seen a dog (or was it a wolf?) change into a child, and honestly, it wasn't that much stranger than anything else that had happened to him in the last few years.

There came a knock at the door and Steve sighed, realising he hadn't given Jarvis an answer. All he wanted to do was curl up in his soft new bed and mourn.

Instead he said "come in," because even if his Ma had been dead for about eighty years now she had raised him to be polite.

The door swung open to reveal the tall, blonde man who had been present the night before. Steve stared at the bulging muscled arms that were currently holding several boxes and wondered if this man was a result of another super soldier experiment. He looked stronger than Steve. And being stronger than Steve was not something normal people were capable of.

"I thought you would want your own clothes as soon as possible," the man said, his British accent making Steve very determined to stop thinking about Peggy. "How do you fare?"

"Huh, um, I'm fine," Steve replied. "If that's what you're asking."

"It is," Thor confirmed before putting down the boxes and staring at Steve thoughtfully. Steve nodded at him uncomfortably. "Captain, I realise that it can be seen as unmanly for a warrior to admit his feelings. However, I am no stranger to loss, nor of finding oneself in a strange place with unfamiliar customs. If you wish to talk with me, I will do my best to listen and give counsel."

Steve blinked, British people could talk strange, sure, but he'd never heard any of them use the kind of words Thor did. "Uh, thanks," he said. "It is a lot to take in. I'm not sure what to do with myself."

"I usually learn about this Realm with Jarvis and my brother's children for several hours each day," Thor offered. "Though that is now only reserved for weekends as the children are at school. You would be very welcome to join us. I also tend to my goats and spend time with my girlfriend. If you wish we could go and visit my goats up on the cliffs now, you get a very good view of the sea from up there and I often find that working with goats lends itself to peace and reflection."

"That would be great," Steve said, trying to smile. He didn't exactly want to go outside with Thor, he wanted to be alone, but he had vivid images of Bucky dragging him to the pictures after his Ma had died (it hadn't exactly been difficult, he had weighed next to nothing), shouting over Steve's protests that he'd been moping inside for three weeks, it wasn't healthy, and he needed to get out and do something to feel normal. Steve didn't know if goats in this century _were_ normal (he had been fooled by a puppy yesterday after all) but he hoped they were, and he had visions of Bucky's ghost calling him a punk and attempting to kick his ass for not taking this opportunity.

He put the crayon back in the tin box and started to close the sketchbook.

"What did you draw?"

Steve flushed, reopening the book to show Thor. Thor was a stranger and everyone, even Bucky (though he had been good-natured about it), teased Steve about his love of drawing. Steve had tried not to let it bother him, it had been one of the only things he had been able to do as a frequently bed-ridden child, and he was good at it. The serum had only improved his control of a pencil and eye for detail.

"It's the Howling Commandos," Steve explained, looking down at the laughing faces and the carefully etched 'Rest in Peace' at the top of the page. "They're all dead now, I'm the only one left."

"It is beautiful," Thor declared. "Your artwork does them a great honour."

"I hope it does," Steve said. "I feel like I have to do something, you know."

"I do," Thor said gravely. "I have lived for over a millennium now and have lost many a shield brother. You must tell me about them. I have no doubt their deeds were worthy of sagas. Perhaps with Loki's help we could write one, he always had a gift for words and your friends should be duly remembered."

"Thank you, Thor," Steve said, blinking rapidly in case his eyes started to water, and feeling very moved despite the strangeness of what Thor had said. "That's very kind of you."

"It is no trouble," said Thor. "Now come, it will do you good to be out in the fresh air."

-Q-

"Gentlemen," a voice said, and Steve looked up from where he had Thor in a headlock to see Tony looking at them nonchalantly, his hands in the pockets of his three-piece suit.

"Stark," Steve replied before Thor flipped Steve over his shoulder and onto his back. Steve winced at the breath was knocked out of him.

"Okay, I'm calling it, end of fight, ding ding ding and all that," Tony said. Steve sat up from the dirt to see the younger Stark grinning at them. Steve couldn't help laughing, partly because of the exhilaration of it all. Fighting Thor had been good. It was great to find someone that could challenge him in a fight and rolling in the dirt for the past half-hour or so had helped to work out the frustration that he'd been feeling since he'd woken. He'd been wanting to punch something for a while, but hadn't thought Stark would have appreciated holes in his furniture, so when Thor had suggested that they spar he had leapt at the chance. "How're you feeling?" Stark asked.

"Better now I've fought Thor."

"Good," Tony said. "Loki and me came back to have lunch with you guys, if you want to come back inside."

"Sure," Steve said, and allowed Thor to pull him to his feet.

Once inside Steve went quickly to his room to change and wash up, Stark said he didn't have to, but he was sweaty and muddy and whatever Stark said he wasn't rude enough to eat in this fancy place looking like he was still in the trenches.

Steve came back downstairs to find the table strewn with what looked like the leftover food from yesterday. Thor was sitting at the table with the other two, looking pristine, and Steve frowned, no way had Thor had time to comb all the mud and tangles out of his long hair. He realised with a jolt that it must have been magic.

"Come and sit down, eat whatever you want," Stark offered. Steve pulled out a chair and sat down. With a dawning sense of horror he realised that he had no idea what half of this food was.

The plate nearest to him looked like it contained sliced vegetables (the ones that he couldn't identify at least seemed like they could be vegetables) and rice. He hadn't had rice much, growing up his diet had mainly consisted of stews and potatoes, things that his Ma could get cheap and knew how to cook. Although his diet had broadened since then, it hadn't been very adventurous and the only times he had ever eaten rice was when Bucky had dragged him round to his friend Amar's apartment and Amar's parents had insisted on feeding them. That hadn't lasted long, his memory was foggy on the subject but he thought Amar had moved out of Brooklyn before they'd become teenagers.

Steve helped himself to the vegetable rice and was about to dig in when Loki interrupted.

"Do you want me to heat it up?" he asked.

"No, it's fine," Steve said. "I wouldn't want to be any trouble."

"Let him do it all he needs to do is wave a hand," Stark smirked.

Steve's eyes widened as he felt comprehension and wonder flow through him. "You mean you want to heat it up with magic?"

"Yes," Loki said.

"Okay then," Steve said, looking forward to hot food but even more so to seeing more of Loki's magic.

Loki squinted at the food, muttered something, and steam began to rise from the rice.

Steve stared at it in amazement.

"How does it work?" he asked.

Loki laughed and shook his head. "It's just energy transfer. If I tried to give you a more detailed explanation than that we'd be here all week."

Steve cautiously took a forkful of the vegetable rice. His eyes lit up in amazement. "These are _vegetables_?"

Tony broke out into raucous laughter. "Yeah," he said through his glee. "Fried vegetables."

"I'm never eating boiled vegetables again!"

-Q-

"I'd like to visit the Howling Commandos graves," Steve said after polishing off several plates of different nations' cuisines. Being in the future was now looking considerably less bleak.

Tony sighed. "Yeah you're gonna have to wait a bit for that."

Steve bristled automatically. "Why?"

"No one except us knows you're alive."

"So what?"

"So, we want to keep SHIELD off your back."

"SHIELD?"

"This super-secret organisation that I'm a consultant for. If they get their hands on you they won't let go, they'll want to make you into their pet super soldier."

"I think," Steve said, his teeth gritted, "that after the number of covert missions I've done I can handle the danger of visiting a few graves."

"You don't understand, there are cameras everywhere now, watching everyone."

"That sounds awful!" Steve's eyes widened. "Why do you work for them?"

"Because they're useful," Tony said. "Look, just give me a few days to set up a new identity for you, get Jarvis to familiarise you with modern technology, we don't want you freaking out over an iPod."

But Steve was stubborn to the bone and he was damned if he was going to give in. He needed to see his friends' graves, he needed to. He needed to know they were really gone, to say goodbye, to come to terms with it. Maybe then he would stop feeling like he was stuck in limbo. "That's not good enough." he snapped.

"God," Tony sighed. "I always knew that you were-"

"I could go with him," Loki said quickly, Steve looked across at him and noticed that Loki was looking paler than usual and was shaking slightly. "I can glamour him, he'll be fine with me, no one will recognise him."

"I don't know what that means, but fine," Steve conceded, nevertheless hoping fervently that being glamoured didn't involve make-up.

"No." Tony said quickly.

"No?" Steve demanded. "What do you want, to keep me trapped here? What do you _really_ want, _Stark_?"

"I am just _trying_ to keep you safe," Tony snapped. "But if you're going to-"

"I think you both should calm down," Thor warned. Steve ignored him.

"You're working for an organisation that you say wants to use me. How do I know that that's not exactly what you're going to do and..."

He suddenly became aware that Loki's breathing had become fast and ragged. Steve looked towards him to see him racked with terror, nails digging into the table and gasping for breath like a fish out of water.

"He's having an asthma attack!" Steve leapt to his feet and would have vaulted across the table if Thor hadn't grabbed him.

"He's having a panic attack you fucking genius," Stark snapped.

"Tony," Thor growled.

"Stop!" Loki gasped out, choking for air, and everyone fell silent.

"Take the Captain and go," Tony said coldly, and against every instinct in his body that screamed at him that he needed to help and protect people Steve allowed himself to be led out onto the clifftop again. He barely looked in the direction he was going he was too focused on gazing back to where Tony was gripping Loki's hands and saying something that Steve couldn't make out.

"What's wrong with him?" Steve asked when they were once again out in the crisp winter breeze.

"Many unjust and terrible things have happened to my brother," Thor said, his expression serious. "Sometimes he gets reminded of those things and falls into a panic. Something that can trigger this is people arguing around him."

"So..." Steve said, trying to process this and not to let the guilt swallow him up (it _had_ been Tony's fault too). "It's like shell shock."

"The Allspeak has translated that very strangely for me," Thor said. "But I believe it to be a bit like that, yes."

-Q-

Sleipnir had never known how bad something could smell until he'd discovered the boys' restroom. He stepped round a puddle of what he hoped was water and wrinkled his nose as he washed his hands in the sink. When he had been a horse he had relieved himself in the corner of his stall and he was certain that that was more hygienic than this was.

The door opened violently, slamming against the red tile walls and Sleipnir squeaked and stepped backwards.

"I'm not fucking doing it!"

It was Jamie, the boy from Monday who'd had the courage to argue with the Maths teacher. Jamie hung up his phone, shoved it into his jacket pocket and then his gaze met Sleipnir's. He was livid.

Sleipnir took another step back out of pure, ingrained self-preservation.

"What are you looking at?" Jamie demanded, stepping towards Sleipnir, his hands balled into fists at his sides.

Sleipnir opened and closed his mouth, no sound coming out. What was he meant to _say_?

"You're that new kid, ain't you?" said Jamie. "The weirdo who _freaked_ the hell out after I left Mr Allen's classroom?"

Sleipnir nodded slightly.

"You have problems."

Sleipnir snorted despite himself. Jamie had no idea.

"I swear to God if you're going to keep staring at me like that-" Jamie said, striding towards him. Sleipnir tripped over his own legs and fell backwards against the wall. Jamie raised his hand and Sleipnir gasped and shut his eyes.

Nothing happened.

"Okay, what is wrong with you?" Jamie snapped and Sleipnir cracked his eyes open. Jamie was standing two feet away with his arms folded. "I wasn't _actually_ gonna hit you, I just wanted to see what you'd do," Jamie said. Sleipnir was fairly certain that neither of them believed that. "I'm legit not that scary. For fuck's sake say something!"

"Okay..." Sleipnir ventured after a pause.

"You're useless."

"Yep."

Jamie rolled his eyes. "Lesson number one in how not to look pathetic; look like you don't give a shit when someone walks into the room, people will pay less attention to you that way." Then he turned to walk into one of the stalls.

"Wait," Sleipnir said, and then wished he hadn't.

Jamie spun round. "What?"

Sleipnir's mouth formed soundless letters before he managed to get out, "How did you do it?"

"Do _what_?"

"Say what you did to the teacher."

"It was easy. He pissed me off I told him what I think."

"And you weren't... scared... that he'd hurt you."

Jamie ran a hand through his hair and sighed in frustration. "No. The teachers can't do shit! That's the best thing about them."

"And that's really true?"

"Yeah!" Jamie was clearly exasperated. "Look, the worst thing they can do is call your parents, and then you may or may not be fucked depending on what mood they're in, but what else can they do? Detentions? Suspensions? That's nothing, man. They're assholes but they can't do shit."

"Oh," said Sleipnir.

"Look, you've got a weird accent. Where d'you come from that teachers can make you _that_ freaked out?"

"Uh..." Sleipnir said, thinking rapidly. Shit, where was he meant to be from? "I don't know..."

"You are as dumb as shit," Jamie declared. Sleipnir smiled weakly.

"I lived with my Grandfather. I didn't go to school," Sleipnir added, trying to be helpful.

"You've _never_ been to school?"

Sleipnir shook his head.

"No wonder you're so fucked up. Oh my God you're gonna be so screwed here. You need help. Okay... Look. Stick with me, don't embarrass me too much, and I'll teach you how to be a normal kid. Cool?"

"Yeah," Sleipnir nodded automatically, very confused about this change of direction.

"Cool, just give me one sec, yeah?" he finished, and then disappeared into the cubicle.

Sleipnir paled as he watched the closed stall door. On the one hand, he thought he might have managed to make a friend. Jamie was a bit mean but far nicer than anyone (except his Dad) had been to him on Asgard. On the other, as Jamie had turned, Sleipnir had caught sight of a partly-healed gash on his forehead, briefly visible under the thick fringe that swished to the side. Was his new friend okay?

 _ **I hope you guys enjoyed that chapter!**_

 _ **Next up: Steve and Tony have an actually rational conversation!**_  
 _ **Sleipnir starts to grow in confidence.**_


	6. Making Friends (And Influencing People)

_**I'm so sorry for the wait. I was ill and then swamped with deadlines and then I was decorating my room (it looks really pretty now!) and now I've got revision for exams!**_

 _ **On another note, I met Tom Hiddleston! Three weeks ago I met him at the stage door after seeing betrayal and aaaaaahhhhhhh, one of the happiest days of my life!**_  
 _ **This site doesn't allow links so find stardustloki on tumblr and then see post 184397515140 if you'd like to read about it.**_

 _ **And, I saw Endgame at midnight. I cried for like half-an-hour because it ripped my heart out! Anyways, my best friend and I have written a short oneshot to fix a character's death. No idea whether it is coherent or not because we finished it at 5am, but it's on ao3 at /works/18592033**_

 _ **It's been a while, so what has happened so far?**_  
 _ **\- Everyone's living in Malibu together**_  
 _ **\- Sleipnir (and the other kids) have started school. Sleipnir freaks out because of the abuse he suffered from Odin**_  
 _ **\- Tony, Loki etc. are building an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Secretary Pierce, the World Security Council and Fury want its plans. Tony is uncooperative**_  
 _ **\- Loki and Sleipnir talk about school and Odin, and Loki convinces Sleipnir to keep trying to go to school for a bit**_  
 _ **\- Tony and Loki find Captain America**_  
 _ **\- Laufey, Frigga and the rest of Loki's family come over for dinner.**_  
 _ **\- Steve wakes up in the 21st century, he comes downstairs to find a) a room full of people (some of which are blue) b) that most of his friends are dead. Fun times! :|**_  
 _ **\- Steve and Thor start to become friends**_  
 _ **\- Steve and Tony have an argument because Steve wants to visit his friends' graves and Tony is worried about SHIELD finding him**_  
 _ **\- Sleipnir kind of makes a friend? Well, one of the 'bad influence' type kids agrees to show him the ropes.**_

 _ **Anyway, I think that's about it. So, as per usual, thank you all soooo much for the reviews, follows and favourites, you are all wonderful people!**_

 _ **16/04/19**_

 **Chapter Six -** **Making Friends (And Influencing People)**

"Okay," Jamie said as they walked down the bustling corridor. "Rule number three: school food is gross. I swear that shit gives you food poisoning. Do you have a packed lunch? 'Cause you're gonna need one."

Sleipnir nodded and mumbled a yes, trying desperately to listen to Jamie and ignore the fact that there were far too many people, pushing and shoving, and he couldn't see them all. He felt closed in. Trapped.

Jamie sighed. "Rule number four: actually speak clear because if you're gonna have friends, they actually need to hear your voice once in a while."

"Sorry," Sleipnir said, doing his best to make his voice louder.

"Thanks, but you don't need to apologise for shit like that."

"Shit like what?"

"What? I dunno, just shit that don't matter." Jamie rolled his eyes and Sleipnir did his best not to shrink away. Disapproval had never been a good thing. Jamie wouldn't hurt him though, he reminded himself, he was helping him, he was being kind. Sleipnir determinedly ignored the fact that Jamie had almost punched him earlier. "People are gonna take advantage of you if you act so sorry for everything all the time.

"Come on," he said as he pushed the door to the heaving cafeteria open. "We're sitting over here. Hey Sam, budge up dude, we've gotta fit two of us on the end here." Jamie slid easily down onto the end of the bench and dropped his bag on the floor below. One impatient head-jerk from him later and Sleipnir sat hurriedly down next to him.

"You're the new kid, right?" the one called Sam asked.

Sleipnir nodded, before remembering what Jamie had said and adding, "yes."

"Where're you from?"

"He's from upstate," Jamie said easily and Sleipnir nodded quickly to confirm the lie. He now remembered that he was meant to have been from an isolated village in Norway (to prove it, his father had said, all he needed to do was to focus on blocking the Allspeak and say something in Asgardian), but it was nice that Jamie was covering for him as he'd said earlier that he didn't know where he was from. The only problem was that he now needed to remember that he was from 'upstate'.

"How come you moved?" Sam questioned, giving Jamie an odd look for half a second.

Sleipnir paused for a moment, then remembered he definitely did have an answer for this. "I moved in with my dad and his boyfriend. I used to live with my grandfather before he died."

"Your dad's _gay_?" one of the boys across the table demanded incredulously. "Ugh, oh God that's so gross. Shit. I'm sorry for you, dude."

Sleipnir paled. Jarvis had warned him that not everyone would be accepting, but they thought his dad and Tony were disgusting? What was he meant to _do_? What if they hated him? Did he want to be liked by people who hated his dad and Tony? But not being liked by people was dangerous, and...

"Hey, don't be a dick, man," Sam said. "Being gay is totally normal, my cousin's gay."

"Sorry," the boy rolled his eyes. "But it's not exactly _natural_ is it? 'Sides, you can't talk, everything you don't like is a faggot, so don't go coming at me like that."

Sleipnir shivered. His eight-legged horse form was the very definition of unnatural. What would they do to him if they knew...

"Are you spending too much time getting off to Miss Dell in biology or what?" Jamie said coolly. "Do you even know what 'natural' means? Being gay is fucking natural, they don't just implant some tech in their brains that makes them not want to touch a boob, do they?"

"And I called everything a faggot _before_ I found out my cousin was gay." Sam scowled.

"Look, whatever man, I'm sorry, okay," the boy said, raising his hands in mock surrender and rolling his eyes. "Jeez, you guys need to chill."

Sleipnir let out a sigh of relief, he didn't trust the boy at all, but the other two seemed okay. They had stood up for him. That was new. It felt good. This must be what having friends felt like.

"Whatever Noah," Jamie shrugged. "Just don't be a dickhead again."

"Did any of you guys get what Mr Shah was going on about for the English homework?" one of the boys from down the table asked.

"No," Jamie scoffed. "Just put that Claudio was jealous and horny and he'll eat that up."

"Thanks," the kid said sarcastically, then frowned. "Hey, did I show you guys the new phone I got for Christmas?"

"No," Noah said,"what is it? Let's see?"

"A blackberry," the kid replied, before looking around hurriedly, obviously checking for teachers, Sleipnir thought, and pulling a phone out of his bag. Sleipnir frowned, it was a small, squarish phone, with lots of little tiny keys, it didn't look _that_ impressive, at least compared to his StarkPhone it didn't. The others, however, clearly thought otherwise.

"That's _so_ cool!" Sam said.

"Epic," Jamie agreed.

"Nice, my parents only got me a rip-off one," Noah rolled his eyes. "Hey, what phone do you got Sleipnir?"

Sleipnir glanced around, making sure the coast was still clear, before pulling out his StarkPhone.

"Holy shit," Noah gasped.

"That must be like the newest model," the kid from down the table exclaimed. "Huh, and to think I was happy about getting a Blackberry."

"How _loaded_ is your dad?" Jamie asked incredulously.

"Uh, I'm not sure really, his boyfriend is the one with loads of money," Sleipnir admitted. "He made - uh bought - this one for me. He's really into tech." He finished with the greatest understatement of the century.

"Pffff, how are you not at some posh private school?" Sam asked.

"Tony wanted me to have a kinda normal childhood," Sleipnir shrugged, his hands twisting uncomfortably in his lap as he tried to stay calm throughout all the cross examination. "He went to private school and he said it was awful. I mean, he said it was shit." He saw Jamie give an approving nod at this correction.

"Who's Tony?"

"My dad's boyfriend."

"No wonder he got you a StarkPhone," Noah said. "If I was rich I'd get my kid a phone made by the guy with the same name as me too."

"If he's really into tech do you get to play lots of video games? How many consoles does he have?" Sam asked.

"A lot," Sleipnir replied. "He says they're not good enough and keeps pulling them apart to upgrade them, something about 3D holographic screens..." he trailed off as he noticed the weird looks the others were giving him. He bit his tongue. "Uh, I'm not very good at video games though, my one-h, uh my five-year-old sister beats me at Mario Cart, she has much more coordination than I do. I prefer reading."

"Dude," Jamie sighed. "You can't tell people that, reading is _not_ cool."

"Oh," Sleipnir said. "Sorry?"

Jamie rolled his eyes.

"I'm not sorry?" Sleipnir squeaked, his breath starting to speed up. Jamie groaned and flopped his head down onto the table.

"Uh, do you want some of my crisps?" Sam asked, holding the packet towards him. Sleipnir wasn't sure whether he looked more concerned or weirded-out.

Sleipnir took a couple, thanking him, and trying to use the crunch of the crisps in his mouth to ground him. Next to him Jamie lamented about the task he had set himself, complete with lots of swearing and banging his head into the table.

-Q-

"Hey, Steve," Tony greeted, sliding down next to him on the bench that overlooked the water. He did _not_ want to be here, but he supposed he didn't really have another choice, he needed to make up with the Cap for all of their sakes, especially Loki's. "I guess we need to talk, huh?"

"We do," Steve agreed, then sighed. "Is Loki okay?"

Tony nodded tersely, resisting the urge to say 'no thanks to you'. They had both been to blame and he knew that, rationally anyway. But that coupled with decades of resentment didn't really make him want to lash out at Steve any less. "He's fine, he's crashing a bit now, so he's on the sofa wrapped in blankets, drinking hot cocoa and watching Harry Potter, he'll be okay."

"Harry Potter?"

"It's uh, a movie, and a book. I'll show it to you at some point. It's kinda iconic."

Steve laughed bitterly. "There's so many things I've missed out on. I'm starting to think I should make a list."

"That's not a bad idea."

The next few moments passed in an awkward silence.

"Look, Tony," Steve began. "I don't want to get mad at you, and I'm really grateful you and Loki pulled me out of the ice. But, I miss my friends, you've gotta let me mourn their losses, to say goodbye. If I can't do that then I don't know if I can move on, and in that case it would probably have been better if you'd left me in the ice."

Tony sighed. "I get that. I do, I'm just scared about you falling into the wrong hands, I don't want you becoming someone's personal super-soldier, or worse, their personal lab rat."

"That's the thing, Tony, I don't think I would. If I'm meant to be dead, people won't be looking for me, they won't think anything of a tall guy that looks kind of like Steve Rogers going to visit a few graves." He grimaced. "And my point from earlier still stands, if you don't trust this Shield thing, why are you working for it?"

"Because they have ressources that I need. And they are the 'good guys', I suppose, they're better than most super-secret organisations. They care about the world, but they also don't care much about the means as long as it gets them the end they want. So, I trust them, a bit, but not completely. And Cap, it's not just them you need to worry about, there'll be other people too. People are obsessed with recreating the super-soldier serum. Just ask Bruce, he's my science bro, he was there at dinner the other night, he tried to recreate it, it didn't work, and sometimes he turns into a giant green rage monster." Steve was staring at him. "Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there, I know."

"I don't know if I want to know what you're on about."

"Probably not, too much, too soon."

"Tony, I don't care who's out there, they can't be worse than Hydra, and no one's gonna think anything of me."

"I dunno, someone who looks suspiciously like Steve Rogers going round and visiting all the Howling Commandos graves and gawping at all the new tech and stuff seems a bit suspicious. But you're probably right. Just, at least let us get you familiarised with modern tech first so you don't draw attention to yourself, and let Loki glamour you so you look a bit different."

"Okay," Steve said, nodding slowly, and Tony breathed an internal sigh of relief. "I guess that's okay. And Tony, I'm sorry for getting mad earlier. I guess, everything's so new, and it's like I have nothing left of the past, and when you didn't want me to leave I felt trapped here."

"Apology accepted," Tony said, rolling his eyes. "And for the record, I'm sorry too, I could probably have handled that better."

"Apology accepted," Steve smiled, and Tony chuckled.

This wasn't at all what he had expected meeting Captain America to be like. As a young child, he had idolised the Captain, he had had dreams of going on adventures with him and fighting Hydra. Jarvis had had a folder of all the drawings Tony had made of their imagined escapades before Tony had burned it in a fit of rage at ten years old. Idolising Captain America had only made Tony vulnerable, and Howard had known this. Some of his earliest memories had been of Howard shouting at him about how worthless Steve would think he was, how disappointed Steve would have been with him, how Steve was a super-soldier who had given his life for his country, he had seen war, and would care nothing for the snivellings of a boy who had only just learned to solder. What was Tony crying for? If Steve were here he would have given the child something to really cry about.

One thing had been for certain, any failure had meant letting Captain America down. So, eventually it had become easier to react against his childhood hero, to reject the Captain as Howard had said the Captain would reject him.

But Steve had actually _apologised_ to him. Something Howard had made clear Steve would never, ever do, because Steve was always in the right, and Tony could never be. And they had had a rational conversation. And okay they had argued earlier but Steve had never self-righteously declared how stupid and worthless Tony was, so that was a start. So, perhaps Howard had been wrong about his long-lost friend, perhaps Tony and Steve could get along. Maybe they could even be friends in a way five-year-old Tony could have only dreamed of.

Yes, they would be.

Fuck you Howard.

Operation befriend Steve was a go.

 _ **I hope you all enjoyed that! Please let me know if you did and you're still reading. I can't tell if people have reached the end or if they've only read three paragraphs when looking at the views in traffic stats, so it would mean a lot if you guys could even just write one word to tell me you're still interested.**_

 _ **Next up: Frigga and Darcy despair at Asgardian nobles and politics**_  
 _ **Our first glimpse of the Winter Soldier (it's angsty and I'm mean)**_  
 _ **The team try to introduce Cap to technology**_

 _ **I've got it written so it should be up in a week.**_


	7. The Asset

_**Wooo, just over a week since my last update!**_

 _ **In the last fic, it was established in a throwaway line that Baldr is Odin's illegitimate son.**_  
 _ **In the myths, Baldr gets hit with a dart of mistletoe and dies.**_  
 _ **In the last fic, when Frigga (and Thor) were ruling during the Odinsleep they decided to distribute apprenticeship funding more fairly between swordsmiths and farmers.**_

 _ **There is an illusion to very unsuccessful attempted rape in the first section of the chapter. It's not in any way explicit, but if it bothers you, skip to the Hydra section after the Asgardian nobles talk about Darcy having armed her handmaidens.**_

 _ **Reminder: summary of the first fic in ch1**_  
 _ **What has happened so far in this fic?**_  
 _ **\- Everyone's living in Malibu together**_  
 _ **\- Except for Darcy, who's acting as an ambassador and political adviser on Asgard**_  
 _ **\- Tony, Loki etc. are building an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Secretary Pierce, the World Security Council and Fury want its plans. Tony is uncooperative**_  
 _ **\- Tony and Loki find Captain America**_  
 _ **\- Laufey, Frigga and the rest of Loki's family come over for dinner.**_  
 _ **\- Steve wakes up in the 21st century, he comes downstairs to find a) a room full of people (some of which are blue) b) that most of his friends are dead. Fun times! :|**_  
 _ **\- Steve and Tony have an argument because Steve wants to visit his friends' graves and Tony is worried about SHIELD finding him**_  
 _ **\- They make up and Tony decides to befriend Steve to spite Howard**_  
 _ **\- Also, much Sleipnir angst**_

 _ **I apologise in advance, I am very cruel to Bucky aka 'the Asset' in this chapter :(**_

 _ **Thank you all so much for reading you wonderful, beautiful people!**_

 _ **25/05/19**_

 **Chapter Seven - The Asset**

Frigga sighed as she looked around at the Council. After the last session she had thought that she had made progress, but it appeared that last night money had changed hands, and Tyr had had some quiet words with some of the on-the-fence lords, and the balance was no longer in her favour.

Darcy sat on an ornate chair beside her, typing furiously onto the laptop Tony had made for her. At first, many Asgardians had been insistent that she use a quill and ink as they did, but Darcy had put her foot down. She could think better with all her notes in one place, she was faster at 'typing' and she was a Midgardian and she was going to use Midgardian technology thank you very much. Darcy had managed to be brilliant and, after showing several of the more liberal Councillors what the computer could do, she had impressed them. At least some of them now thought that Midgardians were more intelligent than goats and were interested in trading with them.

Others, well, they still needed to be persuaded.

She wished that she could do just as she pleased, but an overhaul of the political system required less outright hatred from powerful citizens. Besides, it would be ironic if she were to implement democracy by being an absolute monarch. The realm wouldn't know who to trust and it would descend into chaos.

"Why _should_ we give the peasants a say in how this realm is run? It will be in even more ruin before long. Commoners have no idea of the proper manner of governing." Baldr stated, glaring at Frigga.

Frigga sighed. Once, Baldr would have been amenable, would have looked down with kindness of those of a lower status, but it seemed that after suffering a near fatal anaphylactic shock due to his mistletoe allergy (which, Frigga had recently discovered, Odin had erroneously blamed on Loki), his temperament was rigid, callous and uncaring.

It didn't help that Baldr knew that he was Odin's illegitimate son and thought that due to the regicide of Odin, and Thor and Loki's renunciation of the Throne, he was deserving of becoming the next Allfather. Frigga was _not_ going to allow that to happen.

"Well then, it seems that we will just have to educate them on the 'proper manner of governing'," Frigga said calmly. She wouldn't 'lose her shit' (something that Darcy regularly threatened to do), just yet. "There are hundreds of millions of the lower classes living here who should have some say in how the realm is governed."

"Their lack of class represents their lack of suitability. We were born into our power, it was granted to us by the Norns." Frigga was sorely tempted to roll her eyes at this. "How-"

"Since the farmers were granted more aid for apprenticeships at their request six months ago, the quality and quantity of Asgard's food has vastly increased," Darcy said. "Letting the lower classes have a say on what's important could help Asgard's economy. The Norns have-"

"Do not interrupt your betters, mortal." Leiknir, one of Odin's staunch supporters, was clearly incensed. Frigga was eagerly awaiting the time she could prove that at least one of the assassins had been sent by him. She'd had almost 3000 years practice and she would say that she was a largely patient person, but her tolerance levels were vastly diminishing.

"As I have said previously, Darcy may cut in whenever she wishes," Frigga said icily. "If you are so concerned about preserving hierarchy, then you would do well to listen to my orders and allow us to implement some democracy."

"She may be your 'assistant', but she is not of this realm." Tyr said. "You ask us to trust in the logic of a mortal girl so wise she would grant crude mortal weapons to her handmaidens! It is improper and a demonstration of her severe lack of culture."

"What!" Baldr exclaimed. "This is yet another example of what I have been fearing, you intend to completely destroy Asgard's power and traditions! How do we know that you are not arming them and the rest of the lower classes to rise up against us as you did Odin? You claim you are unsafe, you claim there have been attempts made on your lives, but you make no effort to keep _us_ safe. You would happily see us destroyed."

"Have you murdered the Allmother's daughter, abused her son, her grandchildren, started unjust wars?" Darcy asked. "You might be an asshole but I don't think we'll bother to have them rise up against you, thanks."

Frigga winced, she loved Darcy as a daughter, but sometimes she feared the Midgardian was too blunt for Asgard's style of politics.

"The fact remains that you have armed your handmaidens."

"Yeah? And? I think they should be able to help defend Frigga and I from assassins and be able to taze your drunken soldiers who want to take their 'honour'."

"It's a cowardly way to defend oneself," Tyr stated.

"Oh, because it's not cowardly for a totally ripped soldier to try to take what he wants out of a seemingly defenseless woman."

"Well." Frigga was pleased to see Tyr looking awkward. "Everyone knows..."

"Dude, if you're going to give me some bullshit answer about that being the way of things I'm gonna lose my shit," Darcy stated, and Frigga found herself torn between calling the meeting to order or seeing how this would turn out. "Arna tazing a guy who would happily have done what he liked to her is super reasonable."

"Your mortal weapon is disrespectful, it imitates Mjolnir," Leiknir challenged.

Frigga decided to break for lunch.

-Q-

Secretary Pierce sighed and drummed his fingers on the handrail of the metal walkway. Work on the helicarriers had practically ground to a halt over the last few months and there were now only a few dozen people working on them below him. Since that bastard Loki had turned up and seduced Stark and the World Security Council with promises of intergalactic trade and knowledge beyond their wildest dreams, the funding to his project had been cut and cut again, and many of his engineers had been pulled away to work on the Einstein-Rosen Bridge site.

Of course, Hydra did have a large amount of influence inside SHIELD, it _was_ SHIELD, to an extent, but there were only so many people you could cling onto and so many people you could sweet-talk before Fury, the World Security Council and other important and _true_ SHIELD members would get suspicious.

To make things worse, previously loyal Hydra agents were now questioning the point of Project Insight and were asking if it would not be better to go ahead with the Jotunheim-Asgard-Midgard (coined the JAM agreement by the insufferable Darcy Lewis, who was now swanning around as an ambassador on Asgard as if she had any right to be there). Hydra would never be able to control the human race for its own good if the agreement went ahead, the aliens might get testy.

He had Zola's algorithm, but no way to implement it as of yet, and with the E-R Bridge due to be made public news in just over a month's time he would need to act quickly, and think of a way to eliminate the major powers and players in this agreement. If Hydra eventually formed an alliance with the other realms it was going to be on Hydra's terms.

He sighed again and opened up an encrypted line.

"Strucker? Wake the Asset and prep it. I expect it ready for my arrival in 12 hours."

-q-

When Pierce reached the locked room in which the Asset was kept, 12 storeys under an acre of seemingly abandoned warehouses, he smiled grimly.

The blood decorating one of the concrete walls suggested it had not been in a good mood after being defrosted. The spasms and twitching of the Asset's muscles as it knelt on the hard floor in the middle of the room suggested it had quickly been taught its place again.

"How many?" Pierce asked Rumlow, who was holding a high-voltage baton near the Asset's unprotected flesh arm. The Asset seemed not to notice this, its blank stare looked into the distance somewhere behind Pierce's knees.

"One technician dead, two injured."

Ignoring the concerned 'Sir' from Rumlow, Pierce strode forwards and grabbed the Asset by its chin, forcing it to look into his eyes. Its eyes betrayed a momentary flicker of terror before they returned to their usual blank and complacent state. It had been a fraction of a second but it wasn't good enough. The Asset didn't have a right to fear its handlers, it would take what they did to it and it would accept it.

"Do you think you need reprogramming, Asset?" Pierce asked softly.

He could see the cogs turning in the Asset's mind. Oh, he would definitely be reprogrammed, anything other than blank acceptance was intolerable.

"No, Sir," the Asset rasped eventually, almost too quietly for Pierce to hear.

"No!?" Pierce rewarded the Asset with a backhand that sent it tumbling to the floor. "You have no preference, you are our machine, Hydra's to do with as we please. You will be reprogrammed and you will be grateful for being made into a more effective weapon for Hydra to use to shape the world."

"Yes, Sir," the Asset agreed from where it lay sprawled on the floor. At least it hadn't tried to defend itself or move from where it had fallen. That showed it wouldn't need to be seriously reprogrammed.

Pierce sighed and held out a hand to Rumlow, who placed the electric baton into his palm. Grimly, he pressed the baton down onto the Asset's bare stomach, watching with a certain amount of satisfaction as it writhed silently on the floor, its metal arm sparking slightly and doubtlessly only adding to the pain the Asset felt.

It didn't dare to scream, not that it would remember why it wouldn't, but Pierce's predecessors at Hydra had made sure it wouldn't allow itself to do so.

Pierce wasn't sure about this. It was no doubt useful for stealth on missions, but it seemed a shame that the only time he could hear the Asset's screams was when it was being wiped.

Still, having nigh on complete control over the former Bucky Barnes, the late, great Captain America's best friend, did give him a certain rush of power.

-Q-

It was Sunday afternoon and the residents of 10880 Malibu Point were enthusiastically crowded around Steve who was about to have his first go on a cellphone, a look of expectation on all of their faces. Steve couldn't help but feel like a zoo animal and kind of pressured to get this right.

"Have a go, Cap," Tony was saying excitedly, handing the shiny phone over. "I've set it to 'accessibility mode' so even an old man like you shouldn't have any trouble."

"Are you saying I might have trouble using a device that Loki's kids have no issues with?" Steve shot back, trying to ignore the fact that a quick glance down at the phone as Tony had handed it to him had shown him that he had no idea what any of the bright buttons on the 'touch-screen' did.

"Well, if you can figure out how to text me in the next ten minutes I'll deactivate the training wheels." Tony shrugged, leaning back against Loki and smirking.

"Oh, it's on," Steve said, narrowing his eyes. There was silence for ten seconds, then, "What _is_ 'text', exactly? Am I... sending you a telegram?"

-q-

"Right, Steve," Jormungandr said seriously, "this is a toaster." Steve resisted sighing, he knew what a toaster was... even if this one did seem very fancy. "And these, are poptarts. You _have_ to take the poptart out of the packaging _before_ you put it in the toaster, otherwise you will set fire to things like Uncle Thor did." Steve glanced at Thor, who looked slightly embarrassed.

Five minutes later, Steve had to admit that Thor was right, poptarts tasted very good.

-q-

"This is _music_?" Steve exclaimed, horrified, as he tore the earbuds from his ears. Everything else had seemed much more advanced in the future, why was music so _bad_! "What is it?"

"Skrillex," Sleipnir replied. "Don't you like it? We could try ACDC?"

-q-

"These are _cars_!" Steve rushed down the lab stairs and hurried to inspect the bright red convertible. "They're incredible! Do they fly? Please tell me Howard figured out how to make them fly."

"He didn't actually," Tony said, and Steve's heart fell, remembering the Stark Expo and how amazing Howard's almost flying car had seemed. "We could make it fly together, if you want," Tony suggested casually, and Steve swung round to face him. He was well aware that the only thing he would be useful for in this project was the heaving lifting, but, getting to work on an invention with a Stark? Completing Howard's work? Maybe finding some more about Howard in the process? Becoming Tony's friend? Count him in.

"Yeah, I would really like that," Steve said, smiling as Tony's face lit up into a grin.

"Cool, we'll just introduce you to the internet and then we can get started!"

 ** _So, I hope you guys all enjoyed that!_**

 ** _Next up: Sleipnir tries to be more assertive._**

 ** _Loki, Bruce, Erik and Jane finish the E-R Bridge (finally, a chapter from Loki's POV again!)_**

 ** _Tony takes Steve to visit Peggy._**

 _ **Also, I will shortly be uploading a translation of Dernière Volonté (Last Wish) by SoleilBreton, it's a frostiron AU in which Howard Stark is a ghost who tries to get Loki, an employee at Stark Industries and the only one who can see Howard, to get his murderer behind bars, and Tony and Loki pretend they are just friends with benefits (side note: I learnt that the French word for this is sexfriends, which is amazing) and don't have serious feelings for each other.**_

 _ **It's a super great story and I'm translating it for fun/revision for my upcoming French-English translation exam, so I'm pretty excited about publishing it here!**_


	8. The Completion of the E-R Bridge

_**Hey guys, sorry it's been ages again. I've been super busy, but busy with good things for a change :)**_  
 _ **On the plus side, this WILL be getting regular (hopefully weekly) updates again. I'm using the summer holidays and my time off uni to focus on becoming a published author, and a part of that will be working on this, because this has obviously been developing my skills as an author.**_

 _ **So, what has happened so far?**_  
 _ **\- Everyone's living in Malibu together**_  
 _ **\- Sleipnir (and the other kids) have started school. Sleipnir freaks out because of the abuse he suffered from Odin**_  
 _ **\- Tony, Loki etc. are building an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Secretary Pierce, the World Security Council and Fury want its plans. Tony is uncooperative**_  
 _ **\- Tony and Loki find Captain America**_  
 _ **\- Steve wakes up in the 21st century, he comes downstairs to find a) a room full of people (some of which are blue) b) that most of his friends are dead. Fun times! :|**_  
 _ **\- Steve and Tony have an argument because Steve wants to visit his friends' graves and Tony is worried about SHIELD finding him**_  
 _ **\- They make up and Tony decides to befriend Steve to spite Howard**_  
 _ **\- Sleipnir kind of makes friends? Well, the 'bad influence' type kids. Honestly, they are all dumbass 13-14 year olds.**_  
 _ **\- The Winter Soldier is woken up**_

 _ **Thank you all for continuing to support this fic and not giving up on it due to my crappy update schedule, it means a lot!**_

 _ **28/07/19**_

 **Chapter Eight - The Completion of the E-R Bridge**

A couple of weeks later found Sleipnir with Jamie and Sam in the middle of a maths lesson, laughing about something stupid Sam's little brother had done.

"I know _exactly_ what you mean!" Sleipnir grinned, rolling his eyes. "Just yesterday-"

"Okay class, could I have quiet please?" Mr Allen called. Sleipnir ignored him determinedly, the others didn't always shut up when he asked them to. Besides, he had a story to tell. He was gonna be like Jamie, he wasn't gonna be scared of teachers, he wasn't gonna do what he was told, he wasn't gonna let Odin ruin his life.

"-Jormungandr decided he was gonna make a cake _all by himself_."

"If everyone's quite finished..."

"I swear to the N... to God that my dad nearly had a heart-"

"Sleipnir, you can have your own conversations at lunch, right now we're meant to be focusing on Math."

Sleipnir immediately shut up, biting his lip and staring back at Mr Allen, who was undeniably irritated. Oh no. No. He could _not_ do this, disappointing an Authority Figure brought back too many memories. He nodded and dug his fingernails into his leg to try to steady his breathing.

"Why d'you have to pick on him for?" Jamie demanded beside him. Sleipnir felt his face drain of colour. Jamie was always so angry, always raring for a fight with anybody, Sleipnir wished that he would shut up. "Everyone else was talking, that's not fair. I-"

"Jamie, I don't think this calls for your input."

"I think-" Jamie said, before cutting off abruptly when Sleipnir elbowed him. To his surprise, Jamie glanced at him and shut up.

The last fifteen minutes of the lesson passed in a haze of anxiety, Sleipnir wasn't even sure what they were learning about or what the basic sums he was doing were.

At the end of the lesson Mr Allen called Sleipnir back.

Almost certain that he would faint or at the very least fall over, Sleipnir waited for everyone to leave, doing his best to channel Jamie's energy and stay in control.

-Q-

Mr Allen sighed as the last student left the classroom and the door shut behind them.

What was he even meant to say?

"Sleipnir, you're not here because I want to tell you off." That wasn't a bad start, he supposed, but the kid was looking at him incredulously, sitting tense behind his desk, clutching his math book in front of him like a shield.

He grimaced and hoisted himself up onto one of the nearby desks. "I'm just, concerned about you, I suppose. You're a good kid Sleipnir. And you know, in the grand scheme of things talking over me in class isn't a big thing, don't tell anyone I said this but it's good to see you being more confident, behaving like a normal kid."

Sleipnir didn't look any less tense than when the conversation had started.

"It's just, it's very clear that you're uncomfortable starting a new school and you have some very big anxiety issues. And I think that that makes you... very vulnerable to the manipulations of... certain people."

Sleipnir's eyes narrowed and God knew that Mr Allen had rarely felt more uncomfortable.

"I just think that maybe Jamie and some of the others could be having a bad influence on you."

Sleipnir's eyes blazed and he opened his mouth, obviously to refute that statement, before shutting it again, drawing into himself even more. Mr Allen cursed himself, of course Sleipnir wouldn't see them as a damaging influence, not with how lonely he'd been.

"It's clear you disagree with me, but-"

"No!" Sleipnir nearly yelled and Mr Allen startled. "I mean... I..." he spluttered.

Mr Allen attempted a comforting smile. "It's okay, you're allowed to disagree with me-" Sleipnir looked like he had just told him that the Earth was flat- "I am just asking you to be careful, if you feel like they're being mean, or manipulating you, or making you upset or uncomfortable, I want you to feel like you can find some new friends or speak to a member of staff. I'm worried about you."

"They're the _only_ people who have been a bit kind to me, the _only_ ones who don't make fun of me that much, the _only_ ones that make this all make a _bit_ of sense!" Sleipnir blurted out, defiance and terror painted clearly across his face.

Mr Allen sighed. Of course Sleipnir felt that way. He just hoped that the kid would be able to get away from them before Jamie and his friends messed the kid up too badly.

-Q-

Sleipnir practically fled the classroom as soon as he was allowed to. Mr Allen seemed to be trying to be nice, but he was telling him to be wary of his friends, so what was he meant to make of that? Was he meant to stop being friends with them? Well. He wasn't going to. These were the first friends he'd had in half a millennium (excluding people like Tony, because they were more like family anyway) and nothing was going to change that.

"Hey," Sam called from about halfway down the corridor. "You okay?"

"He said..." Sleipnir started, then froze up. Could he let Sam know what had happened? Would Sam be angry with him? Would he be upset?

"Yeah, I know what he said," Sam said, patting him lightly on the shoulder, Sleipnir managed to only flinch slightly. "Jamie heard what he said too and he punched the wall and stormed off in a rage. I think he might have left the grounds."

"What!?"

"Honestly, I dunno what he was so pissed off about, he does his best to be a 'bad influence' or whatever and we all know he has issues."

"Is he going to be mad at me?" Sleipnir asked quietly.

"No, he's pissed at Mr Allen, that's all," Sam replied. "'Sides, if he does get mad at you I'll show him."

"Really?" Sleipnir almost laughed, his eyebrows raised as far as they could go.

"Well... probably not. You don't want to get into a fight with Jamie, he is lethal, man. He's scary. Look, cheer up. Let's go to the cafeteria, we can try out some of the awesome games your phone has again."

Sleipnir gave a half smile and followed him to the cafeteria, his heart still pounding in his chest.

-Q-

Loki grinned as he looked around at Erik, Jane and Bruce.

"We've done it! We've actually done it!"

"I know!" Bruce breathed. "And to think I thought you were all mad when Tony contacted me."

"Those assholes at college can stick it!" Jane all but shrieked. "Because look what we have here, a working Einstein-Rosen bridge, that just sent a bagel to and from Asgard without opening up a black hole! Suck it bitches!"

"I still think we should have done more tests," Erik muttered, but Loki could see him beaming ecstatically so he just rolled his eyes fondly. "And we couldn't have done it without you and your magic, son." Erik added, and Loki found himself suddenly engulfed in a hug.

He felt like almost crying with happiness. Look how far he'd come, look how far they'd all come. Less than a year ago Erik had all but hated him, and now look at them. And here he had people who cared about him, who knew him, even the parts of him he'd thought (and sometimes still did think) monstrous. Sometimes he found this hard to believe, sometimes he thought that the Norns were just playing an elaborate joke on him and the rug was about to be pulled out from under him and he'd fall into an abyss where he was (rightfully) hated again. But now, now he could believe it. Because he was laughing, and his friends were laughing, and they'd just accomplished the impossible.

He grinned at Bruce, who actually seemed to be crying he was so delighted with their success and knew how he felt. Only half a year ago Bruce had been hiding in Calcutta, afraid of himself, afraid of everything he could do, and people had been hunting him down with such _hatred_. People had thought he was a monster too. But now, here he was, he was with people who accepted him (even, in the case of Tony, tried to get him to let the 'Other Guy' loose), and he was a part of the first team on Earth to crack deep space travel. They had both found a family here.

-Q-

"So," Fury said seriously. "I've been told that your trial run was a success."

"Yes it was!" Jane gushed. "We didn't even cause a small inter-dimensional rupture!"

"That we know of," Loki added, being unable to resist seeing Fury's reaction. The other three glared at him. Once people being mock-angry about him would have terrified him. But it didn't now, at least, it didn't where these three were involved.

"Right," Fury said drily. "Where's Stark, I'd have thought his ego wouldn't resist being here for such a monumentous event."

"He's ill," Loki said quickly. Fury could not know that Tony was obsessing over teaching Steve everything important that had happened over the last seventy years just to stick it to Howard, and also, Loki knew, because Tony actually liked Steve.

"Right," Fury said, who'd clearly heard about the time Tony had come into work with pneumonia and had managed to crack the problem that had been bugging them for three weeks before passing out in a haze of delirium and forcibly-administered medication. "If I find out he's caused a diplomatic incident doing whatever the hell he's doing today, it's your asses on the line."

The four of them looked at each other and shrugged.

-Q-

Secretary Pierce ended his video call with Fury and smiled.

So, SHIELD's new lapdogs had finally cracked the secret to a working E-R Bridge.

It seemed that Hydra needed to put their plans into action.

 _ **So, I hope you guys enjoyed that chapter :)**_

 _ **Next up: Steve goes to visit Peggy with some help from Tony and Loki.**_

 ** _Loki goes to visit Laufey, partly to learn to control his frost giant powers, and they end up having a pretty angsty and deep conversation. Laufey is a Good Dad :)_**

 _ **It would be great if you guys could leave a review, just to let me know you're still interested and reading this, because I do worry that loads of people will have given up on this because I've left it so long.**_


	9. Perceptions

_**What, is this me? Back with a chapter just over a week later? You're damn right it is!**_  
 _ **This is probably one of my better written chapters, so I'm pretty proud of it.**_

 _ **Warning: a few brief allusions to rape in the Loki and Laufey centric part. Angrboda was not a very nice person in the last fic.**_

 _ **In the last fic, a number of Asgardians, including an OC named Alfar, defected and joined the side of Jotunheim when Odin came to attack Jotunheim near the end of the last fic.**_

 _ **What's happened so far in this fic?**_  
 _ **\- Everyone's living in Malibu together**_  
 _ **\- Tony and Loki find Captain America**_  
 _ **\- Steve wakes up in the 21st century, he comes downstairs to find a) a room full of people (some of which are blue) b) that most of his friends are dead. Fun times! :|**_  
 _ **\- Steve and Tony have an argument because Steve wants to visit his friends' graves and Tony is worried about SHIELD finding him**_  
 _ **\- They make up and Tony decides to befriend Steve to spite Howard**_  
 _ **\- Secretary Pierce is unhappy about the Einstein-Rosen bridge being built so the Winter Soldier is woken up**_  
 _ **\- The ER Bridge is completed**_  
 _ **\- (Also, stuff about Sleipnir starting school)**_

 _ **Once again, a big thank you to all my readers, reviewers, followers and favouriters, you guys are all amazing!**_

 _ **06/08/19**_

 **Chapter Nine - Perceptions**

Steve smiled weakly as he closed the back door of the unfortunately-earthbound car. He had admired it earlier, with its sleek black design and strange tinted windows in which you could see your reflection. It was very impressive, and he could certainly be happy about that.

He had decided that he was going to be excited about all this new technology, for Bucky's sake. It could be frustrating and confusing, but whenever he felt like hiding away and giving up he felt he could picture Bucky up in heaven shouting at him because Steve was _alive_ with all this goddamn tech from the _future_ and if Bucky couldn't admire it and make use of it, Steve had better do so. He liked to think that Bucky's spirit would be proud of him.

He barely noticed the car now, it was just a minor detail in the swirl of new information to take in that was Washington DC. Besides, he had more important things to think about, like the fact that he was going to be seeing Peggy and finally getting to talk to someone that he had known in the past. Tony and everyone else were great, but they just didn't get it, they hadn't been through what he had. At least with Peggy he'd have someone he could really connect to.

The fact that she would now be eighty-nine years old was troubling him. He tried to imagine Peggy with grey hair and wrinkles and the idea seemed laughable. To him, Peggy could only be the intimidating and indomitable woman that he'd known, the one with fire in her eyes who would never allow anything to stop her, not even the sexism (a new word that Thor had taught him) of the 1940s. Rationally, he knew he would be in for a shock, but he didn't want to face up to that, not yet. Especially as Tony had told him that her condition would be bad. Steve wasn't sure how he was going to deal with seeing her in her current condition, but he knew he would deal with it. He was a fighter, he never gave up, not even as a skinny asthmatic would he have given up. Whatever he felt at Peggy's condition he would face it head on and he would overcome it. He had fought Nazis, how hard could this be?

He turned back and gave a quick wave to Tony and Loki who were glamoured and sitting in the front seat of the car, concentrating on various screens, before walking up the steps to the nursing home and pulling open the doors.

The inside felt rather drear compared to the glass and brightness of the Malibu mansion, but Steve felt calmed by once again being inside an old-fashioned brick building. This, at least, was more familiar.

"Oh. Mr Stark!" The man behind the counter stared at him, or, at least, the illusion of Tony that Loki had placed on him, in surprise. "We were hoping to see you here again, you haven't come to visit in a while and we wondered um..." he trailed off awkwardly and the whispering coming from the earpiece helped to elucidate the situation for Steve. "That is, Peggy misses you and..."

"Yeah, yeah you'll get your funding," Steve said stiffly, trying to appear relaxed and forcing himself to remember that this was how rich people talked to others, offhand and dismissively. Or at least they did in public, the Tony he'd gotten to know seemed much nicer than that, and Steve was glad of it.

"Thanks," the secretary said, looking at him oddly.

"You're welcome," Steve said automatically. He heard Tony sigh in his ear. "Well. I'll just be off to visit her then." He turned quickly and started his way along the corridor to the right.

"Hey, um, Mr Stark." The secretary grimaced. "Are you sure you're alright? I mean, you just walked the wrong way to Peggy's room and your voice, or your accent is off or something, and you seem a bit... nervous? Sorry to ask, Mr Stark, but have you been on drugs again?"

"Drugs?" Steve demanded, appalled, ignoring Tony's insistent chattering in his ear. "Tony wo... _I_ would _never_ do drugs."

"Mr Stark, I'm afraid I can't let you put one of our residents at risk. I'm going to have to ask you..."

"No wait!" Steve interrupted, he couldn't give up now, not when Peggy was so close. Tony was rich right, and if Tony was telling the truth this establishment really cared about getting funding. "What if I gave you an extra..." what would be a lot of money? "40 dollars."

The secretary stared at him, unimpressed. "Mr Stark, you're a billionaire."

"Fine, you can have - _a million dollars?_ Yes, one million, you can have that."

The man looked torn and in last ditch attempt Steve leaned forwards and whispered. "Listen, this is a matter of national security, I need to know what happened in Vienna in 1944, Peggy is the last living person who can give me information about that." He thought quickly. "Yes. I have been drugged. And I need this information to help me find the cure."

The secretary sighed. "Fine, yes, you can go up, but I'm warning you..."

"Everything will be fine," Steve promised, before adding on the prompt of Tony. "You'll see your million in your bank account by Monday!"

He headed off in the right direction this time, guided by the earpiece. When he was climbing a staircase, safely out of hearing range he whispered:

"You take _drugs_?"

"Steve, I _took_ d..."

"What would Howard say?"

"It was _his_ fault I got addicted in the first place." Tony snapped back, making Steve's earpiece crackle. Steve's stomach turned to ice. No, that couldn't be true. Tony was lying. He couldn't believe he'd say something like that about his own father.

"Bullshit," he hissed. It seemed like the only word that properly expressed his feelings on the situation.

"Steve," Tony snapped. "Can you just get on and find Peggy's room so I can disable the electronic surveillance SHIELD and the US government have put on her and Loki can drop the glamour. Because it's very difficult holding an illusion onto someone you can only see through security cameras, and I swear, if my boyfriend faints because of you, I'm gonna lose my shit."

"Fine," Steve said, and, somewhat childishly he knew, disabled the earpiece. It wasn't like Tony couldn't turn it on again if he needed to, he consoled himself.

-Q-

Steve knocked softly at the door to Peggy's room and felt the prickling feeling on his skin dissolve as he did so. So, Loki had let the illusion fall and he looked like himself again, that must mean that Tony had disabled the nearby tech.

"Come in," a voice called, it was wavery and had changed slightly in pitch. If Steve hadn't known it was Peggy speaking, perhaps he wouldn't have realised that it was her.

Steve opened the door and closed it softly behind him, only turning round to look at Peggy properly once he had done so. She was grey, and lined, and her skin sagged around her face and bluish veins decorated her arms. But it was Peggy. _His_ Peggy. He could see it in her eyes. She squinted it him, her eyes widening in recognition, and she gasped.

"Steve," she whispered. "They told me you were dead. You were lost, I heard your last words before the plane hit the ice."

"Yeah," Steve said, smiling weakly and trying not to cry. "Well, I couldn't die and leave my best girl without her dance now could I?" Internally, he grimaced, and he could hear Bucky taunting him for how corny that sounded.

"Oh Steve," she said softly, "I can't, I'm married n... oh no, no I'm not anymore am I, he died, didn't he..."

Steve surged forwards and clutched her hand, rubbing his thumb along her knuckles in an attempt at comfort. He'd known Peggy was bad, Tony had warned him. But seeing her, like this, it was almost too much. His heart screamed for her re-remembrance of the loss of her husband and the slow decline of her once sharp mind. He wondered if she'd end up like the old woman who'd lived two floors above him, whose mind had slowly declined until she sometimes screamed because she didn't know where she was, and she always repeated the same stories about the Irish potato famine. Not that Peggy would find much interest in potatoes.

"Yes, yes. I'll show you him." A shaky hand picked up a photo-frame and she gestured to the balding man who was seated beside her in the picture. "You saved his life, did you know that?"

"No, I didn't," Steve said. "But I'm glad I did, I'm glad you found someone to share your life with." He was surprised to find that he meant it, he wanted Peggy to be happy, even if a small twinge of jealously for all he had lost slithered around in the back of his mind. Everyone had been supposed to lose him, they had been supposed to move on with their lives. Steve hadn't expected to wake up years later and to have to deal with the consequences of that. Everyone had been supposed to lose him, he hadn't been supposed to lose everyone else.

"Look," Peggy said, pointing to a blonde haired teenage girl in the corner of the frame, one grinning face from the twenty or so that seemed to include Peggy's extended family in this picture. "This is Sharon, I'm not supposed to tell anyone outside of SHIELD this, but seeing as it's you... how _do_ I know it's you though, you've come here on your own, no one told me about you, what have you come here to do?"

"No, Peggy, it's me, it's me, I promise," Steve almost begged. "Tony Stark found me, but he didn't tell anyone because he wanted me to stay out of the way of people who just want to use me for my serum. And, I think I like staying out of the way too. It's nice not to have to kill people, it's nice not to have to see your friends dying beside you." At this point he successfully pushed the image of Bucky falling from a train out of him mind. "What would you like me to do to prove that it's me, I'll tell you anything!"

Peggy shook her head. "Everything's so hazy nowadays, I don't know what to ask." She sighed. "I suppose I'll just have to not reveal any state secrets. Dance with me?"

"What?" Steve asked, surprised.

"Dance with me, then I'll know it's really you. Well, I might do," she smiled, "but at least we'll have had our dance."

"Okay," Steve said, and helped her gently out of bed. "Is this alright?"

She smiled, and he held her in his arms and whirled her slowly around the room, softly humming one of Peggy's favourite songs from before the war.

-Q-

"How did it go?" Loki asked as Steve slid into the backseat of the car.

"Yeah, it went well," Steve smiled. "It was really nice actually."

"You were there for a while," Tony said tersely and Steve bristled.

"Don't start," Loki warned both of them. "You can talk out your issues later, when I'm on Jotunheim, and I don't have to hear you two. I can't deal with this right now."

He took a deep breath and gestured to Tony to start the car. They would have to drive a few miles to drop it off at the car hire centre before Loki could teleport them back to Malibu. Still, despite the tense atmosphere and the fact that his heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest, Loki allowed himself a small smile. He had managed to be assertive again in a situation that made him uncomfortable. That was definite progress.

-Q-

When they arrived in the living room of the mansion Loki's eyes widened.

Sleipnir was in the middle of the room, tottering about in his horse form and giving his three siblings a ride on his back.

Now _this_ was progress.

Up until very recently Sleipnir had been afraid to turn into a horse for fear that he would find himself trapped again and unable to turn back. But here he was, seemingly having the time of his life and letting his siblings ride on him. A part of Loki had thought Sleipnir would never let anyone do that again, and small blame to him. The times when Odin had ridden the horse had often been painful and had sometimes involved going into battle. Sleipnir was his own person and well within his rights to never allow anyone to do that again.

The triplets slipped off Sleipnir's back and ran forwards to wrap their arms around Loki.

"We are three brave adventurers who have been exploring the ancient forests and looking for dinosaurs with the help of our magical steed!" Fenrir explained.

"Well that sounds very exciting!"

Sleipnir changed back into his human form and walked over to give Loki a hug. Loki could almost feel his eyes welling up with tears. "I am so, so proud of you, you know that, don't you?" he asked, placing a kiss on the top of Sleipnir's head.

Sleipnir shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I do."

Loki snorted, his son was becoming more like a Midgardian teenager with each passing day.

-Q-

Loki stared at the jagged ice blade on his arm.

It wasn't perfect, in fact, it might shatter if he applied the slightest pressure to it. But it was there, and if he looked at it from the right angle, maybe, it was just a bit beautiful.

"Well done," Laufey said as Loki melted the blade, allowing the water droplets to drip down onto the snow.

"Thanks," Loki replied, watching the puddle of cool water quickly reform back into ice due to the freezing temperatures. "I know it wasn't very good."

"You should not put yourself down," Laufey said, and Loki frowned. "Your ice magic has been kept hidden from you for almost your whole life, you have made excellent progress these past few months, especially as you have not been able to visit very often and you are still afraid of your power."

"I'm not!" Loki said defensively, he couldn't let his father think he still harboured fear and resentment for the frost giants, not after everything he and his family had done for him.

"You are lying." Despite the amiable tone Laufey said this in, Loki couldn't help his sharp intake of breath and drawing away from his father slightly. Nothing good had ever followed a statement such as this. Laufey sighed. "Loki, I did not mean t-"

"I know you didn't," Loki cut across. "But it seems this fear response is so ingrained in me that I cannot even feel safe when those who mean me no harm say things such as that. But... and I mean no disrespect... surely you are not okay with me lying to you. You could not let that slide." Loki internally cursed himself at his question, it was like he wanted his father to cut him with cruel words (Laufey would never hurt him physically, Loki knew that now, logically, even if his reflexes hadn't quite caught onto that fact), but he had to know what Laufey would do, he had to know the consequences for lying so he could be prepared.

"Of course I could 'let that slide'," Laufey replied. "Loki, you are not a child, and it is not my place to punish you, nor do you need punishing. But still, you are my child, and I would not hurt you with fists or magic or words. I understand why you would not want to tell the truth, and though I am irritated that you did not, it does not suddenly mean I have stopped liking you, that I have stopped caring for you."

Loki shook and collapsed into his father's open arms.

"Why do I always feel so pathetic?" he asked, trying to hold back sobs.

"Because there have been many people in your life who have twisted your mind to believe that you are, when in fact they are the pathetic ones. We will get past this, Loki, my son."

"Sometimes I wonder," Loki muttered.

"You have a lifespan of 5000 years do you not?" Laufey said fondly.

"Something like that."

"Then there is plenty of time to heal then, is there not?"

"Not if I want Tony to see me as something other than a broken wreck!" Loki choked out.

"What happened to the plan of getting him an apple?"

"What if they no longer exist!?" Loki was well aware he was acting a little hysterically now. "What if he gets bored? I can't give him what he wants, I know I can't."

"We are talking about the same Midgardian who stood up to Odin, broke into Asgard, and fought in a war against Odin's forces for you? I have seen the two of you together. He loves you Loki, indeed, he is nearly a second father to your children. And what do you mean you can't give him what he wants, what does he want?"

If Loki's blue skin had allowed him to blush he would have been scarlet. "That- that doesn't matter right now. I spoke in haste, it was nothing."

"You realise that I have had two sons, and that I have had to explain the goings on of nature and answer their questions a long time ago now."

"Oh, father, _no_." Loki begged, covering his eyes with his arms. "I cannot do this."

"Loki," Laufey said seriously. "He is not forcing you into anything is he? If so, then I take all my earlier assessments back and I will not rest until his head lays outside my palace."

"No, no! By the Norns, no!" Loki protested, trying to get the words out quickly in the hope that this would make the situation less embarrassing. "It's quite the opposite, he says it's totally fine if we go at my pace, if we never, well, sleep together at all. It's just... when he was younger he used to be what the mortals term a 'playboy'. Has the Allspeak translated the last term correctly?"

"I believe so."

"You know why I am scared, you know what Angrboda did to me. What if Tony gets bored waiting?"

"Well, it seems as if he has already had enough for several lifetimes, I think he can wait, forever, if needs be." Laufey smiled. Loki shook his head in despair.

"I _hate_ Angrboda," Loki said bitterly, kicking into the snow with his heels. "I wish- but _no_ I cannot wish because then I wouldn't have the triplets. Argh. Three days ago Sleipnir asked me to teach him how to teleport! I can't! I just can't! Because after Angrboda had taught me that she... I cannot risk having a panic attack over it, I cannot risk him finding out what happened. He is just a child, he is not meant to _know_ things like that yet!"

"Loki," Laufey placed a hand on his shoulder and Loki jumped slightly, but then leaned into the touch. "You should teach him. You should build new memories and associations. If he finds out, he finds out. He is what, half a millennia now, I am sure he has an idea of what happened already. You know he will be safer if you teach him. I know you worry about people trying to harm him, this way he will be able to escape."

"I suppose you're right," Loki sighed. "I will teach him, I want to teach him. I'm just scared of screwing everything up, scared of dredging up old memories. Say what you want but I am a coward."

"Loki that is _not_ true," Laufey's voice was stern. "You have been through more than most, bodies take time to heal from injuries, but so do our brains, our souls. You have had such a terrible life, and I am so, so sorry that Odin took you as a child, but you are not a coward, and you will heal."

And with that Loki could bear it no longer and collapsed sobbing into his father's arms.

-Q-

Several hours later found Loki at the entrance to the Malibu mansion.

He had stayed and chatted with his father for a while, talking about lighter subjects, before going to meet the rest of his family. They had eaten Jotunheimian delicacies and played their equivalent of board games, and, overall, he had passed a very enjoyable evening.

He had come back from Jotunheim via the Bifrost because if Loki was honest, Bifrost travel was still a lot simpler and worked better than travel by the E-R bridge, which still came under the category of 'experimental technology'. In the observatory he'd met with Alfar, one of the bravest soldiers who had defected and fought for Jotunheim in last year's battle, and had now taken over from Heimdall and been given his powers. Heimdall had been sent into exile by Frigga due to the part he had played in covering up and helping in Odin's abuse of Loki. Loki felt bad that such a fuss was being made over him, despite the fact that Tony had muttered that Heimdall deserved a lot worse than exile, but he was glad that he no longer felt like Heimdall was watching and passing judgement over his every move.

Darcy had been waiting for him at the observatory, they had hugged tightly and Loki had congratulated his honourary sister (Loki was fairly sure that Frigga had adopted Darcy in all but name now) on the progress she had made in Asgard. Darcy had happily told him about the latest developments towards democracy in Asgard and Loki had caught her up to date with everything that had happened over the past few days.

Eventually he had decided that he should probably get back home or risk not being awake enough to drop the children at school the next morning.

"Hi Jarvis," he said, upon opening the front door.

"Good evening, Loki," Jarvis replied. "Your children are all in bed and are fast asleep. Sir told them all a story and made sure they were snuggled down. You should also note that he was very considerate and he did not start his current activity until eleven minutes ago."

"And this current activity is..."

"Sir and Captain Rogers have been screaming at each other in the workshop for the past eleven and a half minutes!"

"What!?"

"Sir told me to tell you that if they were still arguing when you got back that he is absolutely fine and for you to go hang out with the others. He was most concerned about you having a panic attack."

"To hell with that," Loki muttered, storming towards the workshop. He was either going to put a stop to this or he wasn't going to let his boyfriend deal with this alone. He. Would. Be. Fine.

"What?" Loki asked, almost running down the stairs. "In the nine realms? Is going on in here?"

There was dead silence.

 ** _Heya, I hope you all enjoyed that!_**

 ** _Next up: What happened while Loki was on Jotunheim, aka Steve and Tony argue about what kind of man Howard Stark was. They have very different opinions as to what he was capable of._**

 ** _Please review, whatever they say reviews feed my soul and give me 200% more motivation._**


	10. Sins of the Father

**_Hi everyone!_**

 ** _Warning, this chapter contains discussion of mostly emotional and slightly physical child abuse (because Howard Stark's A* Parenting am I right?). The content of that comes from canon, tie in comics, fanon and my own twisted imagination._**

 ** _What's happened so far?_**  
 ** _\- Everyone's living in Malibu together_**  
 ** _\- Tony and Loki find Captain America_**  
 ** _\- Steve wakes up in the 21st century, he comes downstairs to find a) a room full of people (some of which are blue) b) that most of his friends are dead. Fun times! :|_**  
 ** _\- Tony decides to befriend Steve to spite Howard_**  
 ** _\- On the way to visit Peggy, Steve learns something about Howard that he refuses to believe._**  
 ** _\- (Also, stuff about Loki and Laufey, Hydra, the ER bridge, and Sleipnir starting school)_**

 ** _Thank you to all you awesome people reading, reviewing, following and favouriting!_**

 ** _12/08/19_**

 **Chapter Ten - Sins of the Father**

"You and Steve had an argument, didn't you?" Sleipnir inquired, coming back into the room after brushing his teeth.

"How do you figure?" Tony, who was currently being used as a mountain for an intrepid stegosaurus plushie courtesy of Fenrir, asked.

"You've been all prickly since you, Dad and Steve got back from seeing Peggy. Plus Jarvis told me," he said, picking up a teddy from off the floor and climbing into bed next to his siblings, who were ready for Tony to start reading tonight's bedtime story.

"We were just being stupid, I'm sure we'll make up soon," Tony lied and leaned over to ruffle Sleipnir's hair.

Sleipnir stared at him suspiciously before shrugging and gesturing for Tony to get a move on with the story. _Hoot_ was arguably a very childish book for a boy the equivalent of fourteen years old to enjoy, but Tony knew that Sleipnir loved stories and in a sense the kid was catching up on the childhood he'd never been able to have, trapped in the stables by Odin.

Sleipnir was hardly as enthralled by the story as the triplets were ("Whoooo, whooooooo!" went Fenrir, pretending to be Hoot, the owl), but he seemed calm and contented as he hugged his bear and snuggled next to Hel, listening to the tale.

As per usual this evening Tony's thoughts strayed to his father. His father would never have deigned to read him a bedtime story. His mother had, once or twice, but it was mainly Jarvis who had done so, probably behind Howard's back.

He also had no memories of being able to hug a stuffed animal at the triplets' age, and he was sure his father would have been apoplectic had Tony owned any at fourteen, he wouldn't have allowed any namby-pamby baby's toys for his heir. As he watched the kids while he read he knew his father had been wrong about this. The kids created fantastic adventures with their stuffed toys and he knew they provided great comfort to all of them, particularly to Sleipnir, who often felt overwhelmed by things. Perhaps if Tony had had a few of them he wouldn't have had to build his own friend in the form of Dummy. Now, that was a depressing thought.

"Tony!" Jormungandr whined, tugging at his shirt. "You've stopped reading the story! I want to see if Hoot makes herself a new nest!"

Tony snapped back into reality. "Sorry." Then he frowned in confusion. "But, you _know_ Hoot makes herself a nest, you've read this one before."

"It might be different this time," Jormungandr said earnestly.

Tony rolled his eyes and continued with the story. Unsurprisingly, it had not changed since he last read it.

"Well," he said once he'd reached the end, shutting the book and stretching. "There we are. Sweet dreams kiddos."

"Awww," Hel moaned. "But I'm not tired yet, can't we have another one?"

"Another story?" Tony said in mock horror. "But Miss Death if you stay up any later you'll turn into a pumpkin!"

"It's only like 7.30." Hel rolled her eyes.

"Yep," Tony said. "But your Dad said 7.30's bedtime and he's gonna want you all snuggled down and fast asleep by the time he gets back from seeing your grandpa."

"But that's not a good enough reason," Hel complained. "He wouldn't know. Besides, you're basically our father too, or dad, or maybe pops…"

"Papa?" Jormungandr suggested.

"So you can make the rules too," Hel finished.

"It should be Iron Dad. ID for short." Sleipnir said, then looked at Tony anxiously. "At least… if you're okay with that?"

"Uh," Tony stuttered, feeling himself choking up. What were these kids thinking? He was Tony Stark, he was _not_ the parenting type. If Howard had taught him anything it was that Starks should never be parents. Besides, what would Loki think? He had been through hell for his children and here was Tony, who had only known the kids half a year or so, just waltzing in. Tony had absolutely no right to be these kids' parent and Loki would probably be very upset when he found out. But… he couldn't ignore how much he loved the kids, how he cared for them how he had imagined a good parent would as a child. But no. It was silly. A silly dream. Tony had no right.

"Iron Dad's systems are malfunctioning," Jormungandr said seriously, prodding Tony in the forehead several times.

" _My_ systems are malfunctioning, what about yours?" Tony laughed, slightly to loudly to seem real, and brushed Jormungandr's finger away. "I'm… honoured that you think that about me, but you already have a dad, and what would he think about this?"

"Yes, but why have one dad, when you could have two dads?" Fenrir asked.

"And don't be silly!" Hel admonished. "I think father would be very pleased about you being our Iron Dad. Anyway, you're going to get married and live happily ever after, just like in a fairy tale, so you'll _have_ to be our dad at some point."

"How do you know that?" Tony asked, after all, they hadn't even gotten engaged yet, who knew if Loki would want to stick around with him for that long. Happiness never seemed to last for Tony Stark.

"Because it's obvious!"

"It is… kinda obvious…" Sleipnir said apologetically. "But we've been making you uncomfortable, and we're sorry about that, we'll go to bed now. Sorry for calling you Iron Dad."

"Hey, hey, no, it's okay," Tony said quickly, hating how upset the kids looked and knowing, deep down, that he really did want to be Iron Dad. "I'll be your Iron Dad," _until Loki tells me what he thinks of that_ , he added in his head. "I'm just surprised that you wanted me to be."

"Why would we not want you to be?" Jormungandr asked, confusion evident on his face. "You're the best."

"Huh, thanks," Tony said, a lump in his throat. "Well, uh, I still think you need to go to sleep now so night night," he said quickly, getting up off the bed and adjusting the covers.

"But we don't want you to go!" Fenrir complained

"Tough luck wolfie you've made me your dad and I agree that uh," he checked his watch, "ten to eight is definitely bedtime."

"You could at least sing us ACDC?" Hel suggested.

Tony complied, singing a much more child friendly version of one of his favourite songs, before kissing the children goodnight and leaving the room to a chorus of "Goodnight Iron Dad!"

Well, how about that.

-Q-

Tony took a calming breath as he poured himself some scotch, he didn't drink much, not anymore, but with all that had happened today he thought he deserved a glass. And that's all it would be, a glass to steady his nerves, because he wasn't his father, and he wasn't going to get drunk when there were children in the house.

He lifted himself up onto a stool at the breakfast bar and sat staring at the amber coloured liquid for who knew how long. The kids wanted him to be a father figure, were they insane? He was better than his father, he knew he was, but there was only so much better a Stark could be. Surely he was going to end up hurting them in some way, shape or form.

He heard heard a movement in the doorway and startled, turning round to see Jane in the doorway.

"Hey," she said softly. "Me, Thor and Bruce are watching a movie if you'd like to join. Steve isn't with us, don't worry, he's in his room."

"No thanks," Tony shook his head and sighed, "I probably need to talk to the Captain anyway, before Loki gets back. Jarvis, are the kids asleep yet?"

"Fenrir has stopped tossing and turning so I believe that he may finally be drifting off," Jarvis supplied. "The others are definitely asleep though."

"Cool, so, give it ten minutes," Tony muttered to himself.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" Jane asked. "I spoke to Steve earlier, when you were playing with the kids, and he told me his side of the story. For what it's worth, I don't agree with him, I don't think you were lying about what Howard did."

Tony smiled weakly. "Thanks, I think you might be one of the only ones that would."

"Steve'll come round, don't worry. He's just trapped in the past right now, scared of all these changes."

"I guess," Tony said noncommittally. "But you should go enjoy your film, I'll be fine here."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really, I need to psych myself up for this conversation."

"Okay," Jane said, grimacing reluctantly. "But you know that if you need anything, I'm here, right?"

"Sure," Tony said, before swivelling round and turning back to his drink. He heard Jane's footsteps getting fainter as she walked away.

He did _not_ want to have this conversation with Steve. But he had to. He had to because he had to be responsible and he had to have this out the way before Loki got home so he didn't send his love into a panic if things got slightly out of control. He couldn't allow this bad blood to stay between him and Steve. Better to finish things sooner rather than later.

He took a shaky breath and brought the glass to his lips, gripping it so hard at the back of his mind he was surprised it didn't crack. He didn't want to think about his father, but he was precisely what he needed to think about if he was going to try to explain to Steve what Howard was really like.

He grimaced as the bitter liquid warmed his throat. It wasn't at the taste of the drink, no, he had become immune to that years ago, but rather the thought of the conversation to come. What he had feared, what Howard had told him would happen if the great Captain America ever met him would come to pass. His childhood hero would reject him, would see how worthless and disappointing Tony was.

 _Well_ , thought Tony, taking another sip, _fuck that_. If that was what was going to happen he was going to face it, he was going to face it head on. He was Tony Stark and he was Iron Man. And now, also, he was Iron Dad, and more confused than ever at how Howard could have treated a child in the way he did. He was going to be a better father to his boyfriend's kids than Howard ever was to his biological son so Howard could suck it.

He drained the glass and looked up at the ceiling.

"Hey J, is Fenrir definitely asleep now?"

"He is, sir."

"Awesome. Tell Steve we need to talk and for him to come down to the workshop stat."

Tony walked purposefully towards the workshop, it was at the bottom of the house, so it would be less likely that the kids would hear and wake up if their discussion got a little heated. If Tony were honest with himself, he wanted things to get a little heated, he was raring for a fight, he wanted to scream at Steve till his voice went hoarse, to make him understand.

Still, he was trying to be responsible, and hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

It came to that.

-Q-

"Jarvis said you wanted to talk," Steve said, standing awkwardly in the doorway of the workshop.

"Yes, I did," Tony replied. "You should come in. I figure we should probably talk about what happened earlier."

Steve stepped inside and stood with his arms folded, staring at Tony seriously. Tony would never admit it out loud, but it was intimidating. Good thing fear only made Tony Stark throw himself into a fight harder.

"You mean when you lied to me," Steve said evenly.

"I _didn't_ lie."

"Tony _please_ , I don't know what weird attention seeking ploy that was but no father would give their child drugs, that's insane."

"Is it?" Tony snapped, already feeling his resolve to have a calm conversation failing. "A _good_ father certainly wouldn't, but my father wasn't a good father. You may have known him back in the war, Steve, but when I knew him he was not the man you knew, not around me anyway."

"Tony, you're being unreasonable. Please, just tell me you lied and we can just make this water under the bridge. You don't have to ruin the memory of my friend and your father for no good reason."

"No good reason?" Tony spluttered. "I didn't _want_ to tell you, I wanted you to have your nice memories of him, unscathed, from when he was some genius american scientist who arguably saved the world. But then you went and pushed. So you're gonna shut up and listen to what I have to say."

Steve rolled his eyes, looking incredulously at Tony. "Fine," he said. "Fine, I'm listening. Go ahead."

"Good," Tony replied, setting his jaw. "Right. Well, my father growing up wasn't the Howard you knew. Sure, he might have been, at science conferences, in front of the press, around all his ambitious 'friends'. At home, he wasn't charming, he wasn't debonaire, he wasn't kind. He was cold, he was ruthless, never _once_ did he say he even liked me."

"I'm sure he must have," Steve interrupted. "At least he must have thought you knew. Besides, all fathers are a bit… emotionally distant."

Tony bit back a laugh. "Emotionally distant is one thing, irritation seeming to border on hatred is another."

"Please-"

"Shut _up_ , Steve. He never cared for me, he never needed to, because he already had the son he wanted, his greatest creation. You."

Steve slammed his hand down on the workbench next to him and Tony flinched. "So _that's_ what this is about?" he demanded. "You got a little jealous as a child and now you've twisted it into this?"

Tony took a step forward and got right into Steve's face. "I haven't twisted anything, Steve, I know what happened. And I didn't get a little jealous, I got a _lot_ jealous. I _adored_ you as a kid, I heard so many stories about you and I thought you were wonderful. That was before it was all Captain America is so much better than you, Anthony, Captain America would be so disappointed in you, Anthony, if Steve Rogers could see you now he'd be disgusted at how pathetic you are, Anthony. Ugh. And then he was off _all the time_ on his stupid, futile missions to find you and God freaking help me if he remembered my existence after coming back from one of those missions because he _never_ failed to remind me how much of a disappointment I was and how I would never, ever be good enough."

Fury radiated off of him as he glared at his former idol.

"Why did you even find me then? If you hate me so much?" Steve demanded. "What was the point?"

Tony flew towards the truth, vindictiveness searing through his veins, because screw it he was past filtering things anyway. "Because I wanted to do something that he couldn't."

"So that's the only reason you found me? To one up your father?"

"Yes! It was!"

Tony felt a twinge of regret as he looked at the heartbreak breaking through the anger on Steve's face.

"So. I'm here. With people who don't give a damn about me. Because you wanted to one up your long dead dad?"

"Yes." Tony said, before realising what he'd just said and thinking maybe he might have gone too far that time. "No… that's not true. We do care about you. Well, I cared about you until you started defending my father."

"Grow up," Steve snarled. "What he said to you might have hurt but he was clearly trying to get you to be a better person. You're 40 years old Tony, you should know what tough love is. And so what if he kept leaving to find me? At least he was a decent enough man to keep me from freezing there for eternity."

"Steve, he cared about you because you were his fucking project, a beautiful experiment."

"That's not true." Steve yelled, pushing Tony away from him. Tony stumbled but kept his balance, then he snarled and launched himself at Captain America. Steve caught his arms easily and held away Tony as he struggled to get close enough to hit the captain.

"What are you gonna do?" Tony taunted, a slightly manic gleam in his eye. "Give me something to cry about, show me how weak I am like Dad always said you would?"

"No," Steve said, looking at Tony like he was insane and shoving him away again.

Tony blinked at stared at the captain in confusion as he suddenly found himself a few feet away. "What?"

"Jesus Christ, Tony, what is wrong with you?" Steve demanded.

"I'll tell you what's wrong with me, my goddamn father!"

"Okay," Steve said, taking a deep breath. "Okay, just, for the sake of argument, let's say I believe you. Tell me exactly what he did to make you hate him so much."

"Fine, yeah, I will, let's start at the beginning. I'll run you through what was happening when you were still a capsicle," Tony said shakily, feeling thoroughly tilted off balance by Steve's change of tune.

"So, Dad basically ignored me for my whole childhood. He wanted me out of his sight, which sucked because I was a really smart kid and I had stuff to show him. He _was_ interested when I made my first circuit board at _four years old_ , but only, it seemed, because of the press it would give him. When we were alone he told me my circuit board was basic and not up to much, that I needed to do better.

"It was a bad idea to interrupt him when he was working, even though he was working all the time, it never ended well. But you know," Tony shrugged, trying to give off an air of nonchalance, and pushed one of the puffy bits of his hair back so Steve could see his hairline without any shadow getting in the way, "getting a torque wrench thrown at my head at least meant he was paying attention to me, so I guess that was better than nothing, right?"

He smirked at Steve's shocked expression, at last, some vindication.

"I suppose," he continued with a much calmer air than he had a minute ago. "It was probably better when he ignored me, but I didn't want to accept that as a kid. It was great when he allowed me to work in the workshop with him, only, sometimes he'd hand me things, and they'd be a bit too hot, or a bit too sharp, but God forbid that I made any kind of fuss about that. He didn't want wimps working with him. Now you know why I don't like being handed things." He shrugged. "Though, I guess that's partly because I'm a billionaire and people have tried to hand me bombs and shit before, can't give the old man all the credit.

"And now," Tony said airily, finding a certain glee at ripping Steve's perception of the man apart. "We come to the alcohol, and then the drugs. You see, as Howard always liked to remind me that 'Stark men are made of iron' - ironic now, I know, because I'm Iron Man - and what stark men also needed to do was handle their alcohol! So, at six years old, he made me have my first drink. I don't remember much apart from feeling very ill after that.

"But anyway, I was drinking regularly several years after that. A twelve year old with a taste for alcohol. But dear old Dad didn't only take alcohol to get him through the day, no, sometimes he thought his creative processes were running dry and he decided to get a little inspiration though drugs. I mean, perhaps you were right when you said he didn't get me addicted, he only made me take them a couple times before I went off to college. But I suppose his lack of care did make me kinda a desperate, clingy fourteen year old at MIT, desperate to be popular, so I kinda fell in with the party crowd. Lots of people doing drugs there, lots of people who'll get you high just to manipulate you and steal your money.

"So, I think we've covered all of the basic things though really we've only just scratched the surface, any thoughts, Cap," Tony stood accusatory in front of his childhood hero, feeling the adrenaline run through his veins, triumphant.

"Where was your mother throughout all of this?" Steve demanded, horrified.

"Oh Howard stressed her out so she spent as much time away from the mansion being as socialite as possible. I don't think she wanted a kid trailing along after her."

"Right." said Steve. "And your friends?"

"I made a friend," Tony said, completely blasé. "Dummy, he's over there in the corner. And I made friends with Rhodey in college, he was cool."

"Howard still gave you the company though," Steve said weakly.

"And do you really think I'd have gotten the company if you'd have been around?" Tony retorted. "And are you still defending him, after all I've just told you!?"

"I wouldn't have wanted the company," Steve was clearly exasperated. "Just give me time to come to terms with this, I want to check some things out."

"You don't believe me, do you? After I just bared my soul to you?"

"I'm sorry if I'm finding it hard to believe that my friend turned into a completely different person?"

"I thought we were friends, at least I did until earlier, doesn't that earn trust?"

"I met him during a war, that forges a bond."

"I would have thought defrosting someone forges a bond too?"

"I wouldn't bring that up considering you did it for completely selfish purposes!"

"Well I-"

"What?" Tony turned to see Loki flying down the stairs, looking like some kind of avenging angel. "In the nine realms? Is going on here?"

Loki looked terrified but also simultaneously apoplectic with rage. Tony was at a loss for words.

"Well?" Loki demanded.

"We had a difference of opinion on Howard," Tony said, shooting an icy look towards Steve.

"Well, that's very easily sorted, he was an arse, case closed," Loki snapped. "Now we're going to bed. Steve, get your priorities straight."

And the next thing Tony knew he was in their bedroom, having been teleported there by a shaking Loki.

"You don't think I was too harsh on him, do you?" Loki bit his lip and continued quickly. "I don't like talking to people like that, only…"

"Lokes, I literally told him the only reason we found and defrosted him was to one up my dad, I think you're good." Tony replied, hugging him tightly, realising that they were both shaking now. "Come on, let's go to bed, I want to hold you, be crushed by a mountain of blankets, and forget about everything that just happened."

 _ **I hope that chapter was enjoyable :D**_

 _ **Please let me know if you liked it :)**_

 _ **I kinda hated Steve a little bit in this chapter but I do really like him in general and I feel sorry for him so he will see the error of his ways.**_

 _ **Next up: Anything from**_  
 _ **\- Darcy and Frigga finally come to some kind of agreement with the Asgardian nobles**_  
 _ **\- Sleipnir is kinda a little shit (and does magic?)**_  
 _ **\- Loki conforts Sleipnir about the short lifespan of Tony (and they think about finding a solution)**_  
 _ **\- Everyone prepares for the announcement of the E-R Bridge**_  
 _ **\- Tony and Steve sort out their differences**_  
 _ **Idk what is coming first tbh but it will be 2 or 3 of those things**_

 _ **If anyone's interested, the children's book Tony read is**_ **Hoot** _ **by Jane Hissey, it was one of my favourite books as a young child.**_  
 _ **Also, my undying thanks to Sleipnir. After over a year of internal debate I still had no idea what Tony's dad name should be and when I was writing this chapter Sleipnir was just like Iron Dad and I was like yes! Perfect! Thank you!**_

 _ **Also, I've started a writing blog for my original work and other writing stuff called deborah-writes on tumblr. It has my irl name on there but whatever. If you guys know me in real life you've read this far so you can't judge me!**_


	11. Forgiveness

**_I was actually expecting so have several sections to this chapter, but then this ended up being over two thousand words, so only one long scene here today!_**

 ** _So, what happened?_**  
 ** _\- Everyone's living in Malibu together_**  
 ** _\- Tony and Loki find Captain America_**  
 ** _\- Steve wakes up in the 21st century, he comes downstairs to find a) a room full of people (some of which are blue) b) that most of his friends are dead. Fun times! :|_**  
 ** _\- Tony decides to befriend Steve to spite Howard_**  
 ** _\- On the way to visit Peggy, Steve learns something about Howard that he refuses to believe._**  
 ** _\- Steve and Tony argue about what kind of man Howard Stark was. They have very different opinions as to what he was capable of._**  
 ** _\- (Also, stuff about Loki and Laufey, Hydra, the ER bridge, and Sleipnir starting school)_**

 ** _Thank you all for being super amazing!_**

 ** _22/08/19_**

 **Chapter Eleven - Forgiveness**

Sleipnir blinked, consciousness slowly returning to him. He had had a _weird_ dream. Something about a penguin and an arc reactor. Weird. Still, it hadn't been a bad dream, and he couldn't remember much of it, which was always nice. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and looked around, the sky was still dark, but the dinosaur night-light produced faint and comforting golden shapes on the walls.

"Jarvis," he whispered. "What time is it?"

Jarvis helpfully displayed the time '04:07' on the ceiling.

Cool, it was time to get up. Because Sleipnir generally fell asleep at the same time as his siblings, about eight o'clock at night, he usually woke up between four and five and spent the next couple of hours doing whatever he wanted.

"Thanks J," he said, slipping out of bed and grabbing his dressing gown.

He crept out of the room and out into the corridor. Now, the question was, what did he want to do this morning? He could go swimming in the pool again, that was always fun, he enjoyed splashing about and learning how to swim was definitely improving his motor control as a boy (figuring out how all his muscles were meant to work having spent most of his life as a horse was no easy feat), and he was in no danger, Jarvis was always watching him in case of the unlikely event he got into trouble in the pool. But he had done that yesterday, and he wanted to create some dank memes to impress his friends with, probably ones centering on cats or Iron Man as they were always the funniest. He also had some biology homework to do, he remembered, sighing. He wanted to learn about weird sea fish, not the carbon cycle.

Yeah, the biology homework needed to be his priority. The poster he had to produce needed to be handwritten and accompanied by drawings which were guaranteed to take _forever_ , especially if he wanted his writing to be _remotely_ legible and spelled correctly, and his drawings to kind of look like a cow or a tree or whatever else was meant to be part of the cycle. Jarvis would probably be able to explain the cycle to him in a way that was interesting.

He shuffled into the playroom to collect some felt tips and an A3 sheet of paper before making his way towards the main room, thinking he could curl up on the sofa with a tray on his lap and do the homework there.

He took two steps towards the sofa.

Something moved.

He yelped and jumped backwards, his pens scattering over the floor.

"Hey, hey, kid, it's fine, it's just me!" a voice reassured.

"Steve?" Sleipnir breathed out shakily, his heart hammering in his chest.

"Yeah."

"What the _fuck_ , man," Sleipnir hissed. "What the hell are you doing sitting around here in the dark? Jarvis, lights."

"Sleipnir, language!" Steve said reproachfully, and Sleipnir wrinkled his nose. Steve was right there, the words that he'd been doing his best to pick up at school to make himself fit in better weren't really appropriate for other places, especially as if he got used to saying them he could say something like that in front of the triplets.

"Sorry," Sleipnir said, and meant it, even though Steve had no right to go scaring him like that. Jarvis had gradually turned the lights up and he could Steve properly now. He looked awful, like he hadn't slept at all, his hair was messed up and his eyes were slightly bloodshot. He had a full sports bag next to him, out of which several paintbrushes were protruding. "But what _are_ you doing down here? What's wrong?"

"I, uh, think I need to leave."

"What? But why? We don't want you to go!"

Steve sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Tony and I had an argument, and I don't really think I'm welcome here anymore."

"Oh," Sleipnir said before sitting down cautiously next to Steve. "But Tony really likes you, he said so."

"That's the thing, I don't really think he does." Steve grimaced and Sleipnir found himself getting even more confused.

"But you've been making that flying car together, and he's been teaching you all about the internet and good music."

Steve laughed softly. "I don't think you and Tony's definition of 'good music' will ever be mine."

"Hey, we're trying to stop you from being an old man here!"

"Sleipnir, look," Steve said, serious again. "Tony told me that he only rescued me from the ice to one up his old man. He didn't care about me at all."

"I don't think that's true at all!" Sleipnir protested. "Maybe he did find you to stick it to Howard but he really does care about you!"

Steve shook his head sadly and stared at the ceiling. "Well, maybe he did, but I really messed things up last night. He told me some stuff about Howard and I… I just didn't want to believe it… I reacted really badly. I said some things I shouldn't have. It's stupid, I just, I wanted the Howard I knew to have stayed that way, generous, utterly insane, but not in a bad way. I guess, the war, life, something, just really messed him up."

"Why can't you just say sorry?" Sleipnir frowned, clearly Steve was totally over-reacting to this, but that was okay, because Sleipnir got anxious and blew things out of proportion all the time, so who was he to judge? "I argue with people sometimes, especially the triplets, but then we apologise and things are weird for a bit but everything is okay again. And Tony's not scary, he's not like _Odin_ , he will accept your apology."

"Maybe."

"Definitely!"

"But what if he doesn't want to listen to me?" Steve asked.

Sleipnir frowned. "Then you give him a card and say how sorry you are inside, that's what Hel did when she lost control of her magic and set fire to some of my stuff last month."

"You're not gonna let this go, are you?" Steve questioned, a half smile on his face.

"No," said Sleipnir. "I like hanging out with you, I think you're really cool, and you help me with my drawing. You can't leave just because of one silly argument."

"Fine," Steve said, and dragged himself up off the sofa. He found Sleipnir's felt tips and handed them to him, before easily picking up one of the side tables and placing it in front of the sofa so they had a flat surface to work at. "What are you working on?" he asked once he'd sat back down on the sofa beside Sleipnir.

"The carbon cycle," Sleipnir said, his nose wrinkling.

"Huh, I've never heard of that," Steve said. "What is it?"

"You've never heard of it!"

"The schools back in my day weren't as good as the one you go to."

"Oh. Well, carbon is this element thing and the carbon cycle is like what happens to it when trees are burnt or a cow dies and stuff. I don't really get it though so Jarvis is going to have to teach both of us about it, I guess."

"I guess he is," Steve agreed.

-Q-

Two hours later found Sleipnir with a completed carbon cycle poster and a much better understanding of how it worked. Despite saying that he would only give Sleipnir advice or show him how to draw things on a separate sheet of paper, Steve had sometimes given in to Sleipnir's begging and the poster did contain some very nice trees and a fancy sports car.

Steve had finished his card and was now starting to get breakfast for everyone.

"Mr Rogers," Jarvis said suddenly, making Sleipnir, who had been putting his rolled up poster in his bag, jump. "It is now six-thirty and Sir is due to wake up."

Steve rubbed the bridge of his nose and grimaced.

"Hey Sleipnir…"

"Yes?"

"Do you think you'd be able to give the card to Tony, I'm not sure how he'd react to seeing me, especially so early in the morning, and I don't want to have another argument with him if I can help it."

Sleipnir rolled his eyes. "Fine," he said, picking it up from off the table. "But I think you're a scaredy-cat."

"Seconded," Jarvis said.

"Gee, thanks."

Sleipnir laughed and made his way up to his dads' bedroom and knocked on the door.

"Come in," his dad's muffled voice said a few seconds later.

"Morning Dad, morning Iron Dad," Sleipnir greeted, resisting the urge to giggle at how sleepy the two of them looked, gazing at him with bleary eyes under a heap of blankets.

"Iron Dad?" Loki questioned, yawning.

"Oh, yeah," Tony replied, looking awkward. "Last night the kids decided that I should…"

Loki turned towards him and cupped his cheek. "You want to be their dad too?" he asked.

"Well, um, I know I'm not super good parent material, but if you're okay with it…"

"Of course I'm okay with it, I'm more than okay with it, I'm so glad! I didn't want to bring it up in case I scared you off, but…"

And with that Sleipnir's parents were kissing.

"Hey, ugh, knock it off, it's gross!" he complained. "I did not come in here for this, I came to give Tony a card!"

"A card?" Tony said, evidently very confused but thankfully no longer kissing Loki.

"Yeah, it's from Steve, he hasn't slept, he feels really, really bad and he made you a card to say sorry."

"Ugh," Tony said, flopping down onto the pillows. "I am not in the mood for _anything_ that that-"

"Tony," Loki warned.

"If you think your son doesn't know swear words you are delusional," Tony rolled his eyes. Sleipnir pointedly ignored Loki's gaze. "But fine. I'll read it, let's see what spangles has to say. But the moment he starts defending Howard again, I'm done."

Sleipnir passed the card over to Tony.

Tony glanced at the front of the card, on it Steve had drawn a picture of all of them together: Steve, Tony, Loki, Thor, Jane, Erik, Bruce, Jormungandr, Fenrir, Hel and Sleipnir. He had left off Hela, Darcy and Frigga, and all of Sleipnir's family from Jotunheim, but Sleipnir supposed that was acceptable, after all, Steve had only met them once, and that had been when he had just been defrosted. Tony then opened it to the inside and started to read, Sleipnir knew what Steve had said, he had been there when it was written after all.

 _Dear Tony,_

 _I'm sorry for what I said last night. I've had some time to think, and for what it's worth, I do believe you. I was so scared of losing the good memories of a man long dead and gone that I forgot what I had right in front of me. I reacted badly, but I hope you can forgive me, I'd rather be a part of this family than stay Howard's 'greatest creation' forever._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Steve_

"Huh," Tony said, staring at the card, clearly reading and rereading the message. He flipped the card over and looked at the picture that Steve had drawn with the expensive coloured fine-liners that Sleipnir, Tony and Jane had picked out a few weeks ago after a trawl through the internet. "He means this."

"I think he does," Loki replied.

"I _know_ he does," Sleipnir added.

"Well," Tony said, still looking completely thrown. "I suppose I _could_ forgive him. I just. Wasn't expecting this from him."

"Steve may be a bit of an idiot sometimes," Loki said. "But he's not who Howard said he was."

"I guess not." He hauled himself out of bed and Sleipnir couldn't help but laugh because Tony was wearing _Iron Man pyjamas!_ "Come on then, I've got Steve to talk to, coffee to drink, and triplets to help get ready for school."

Sleipnir followed his dad and Tony downstairs apprehensively; he really hoped his Iron Dad and Steve would actually be able to make up, it would be awful if they couldn't, and he couldn't stand the thought of them having an argument around him.

Steve stood up from the table and stared fixedly at Tony when they entered. Sleipnir wrapped his arms around Loki, who hugged him tightly back.

"Nice drawing, thanks," Tony said, walking over. "And, I forgive you, by the way, but I don't want you spouting any more bullshit about how my father was a nice person."

"I am never doing that again," Steve assured him.

"Good. Well. I guess I should apologise too, I made out that I only found you to stick it to my dad. That wasn't true. Well… it basically was, but I did think of you as my friend once we'd gotten to know each other, and I'm glad I defrosted you, you're not too bad, Rogers."

"You're not too bad yourself," Steve smiled. "Do you think we could start again, put all of this behind us?"

"Yeah, I think we could," Tony said, holding his hand out.

Steve shook it. "To letting go of the past," he said.

"To letting go of the past," Tony agreed. "Now, I smell coffee."

"Oh yeah," Steve said, "I made you some, I asked Jarvis how you liked it best."

"Well now you're just sucking up Steve." Tony rolled his eyes. "Keep going like this and I'll think you're too clingy and I'll have to revoke out friendship."

"Oh yeah?"

"Oh yeah."

As he watched Tony and Steve bantering across the kitchen, Sleipnir breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. It seemed that things were alright again.

 ** _I hope you all enjoyed that! Please let me know your thoughts because I'm actually pretty anxious about this chapter._**

 ** _Next up (aka, what I was also expecting to write in this chapter):_**  
 ** _Drama at Sleipnir's school_**  
 ** _Loki teaches Sleipnir how to teleport and they discuss how to solve the problem of Tony's mortality._**

 ** _When is hydra finally gonna come out the shadows and screw everything up you all ask. In two chapter's time. I was not expecting it to take this long, but other plot points kept demanding to be written, and who was I to refuse?_**

 ** _Until next time!_**


	12. Skipping Class

**_Hey everyone, sorry about how long this took to get out, I've moved to Belgium and things have been kinda hectic. On the plus side I have the next chapter already typed up so I can promise that that will be out within a week._**

 ** _What's happened so far?_**  
 ** _\- Everyone's living in Malibu together_**  
 ** _\- Sleipnir (and the other kids) have started school. Sleipnir freaks out because of the abuse he suffered from Odin_**  
 ** _\- Sleipnir kind of makes friends? Well, the 'bad influence' type kids. Honestly, they are all dumbass 13-14 year olds._**  
 ** _\- He tries to gain confidence and starts pushing the boundaries_**  
 ** _\- Tony and Steve (who is living in secret at the Malibu Mansion) have a massive argument about Howard Stark but they reconcile their differences and now they are back to a kinda shaky friendship thanks to Sleipnir_**  
 ** _(And a lot of other things too, like building an Einstein Rosen bridge, but they're less relevant for this as this chapter is kinda about making sure I get part a of Sleipnir's arc done before Hydra attacks in the next chapter haha)_**

 ** _Thank you guys for all being amazing and continuing to read this even with my questionable update schedule._**

 ** _29/09/19_**

 **Chapter Twelve - Skipping Class**

"You want to skip class with us," Jamie said slowly, not quite sure of what he was hearing. Jesus, he came back to school again after four days and _this_ is what he ended up in after only ten minutes. Sleipnir seemed to want to take talking in class up several thousand notches.

Why had the kid had to come up to him to check he was okay just when Emmet was asking him if he wanted to skip class? And _of course_ he was okay. Mr Allen had just pissed him off and he had decided that if that was what people thought of him then he was done with school. Anyway, that had turned out to be a pretty terrible idea, so, here he was, back, and having this stupid conversation.

"Yeah," Sleipnir said. "Physics is boring, and I don't really need to go anyway, I can just get Jarvis or Tony to teach me the stuff and it'll be way more interesting. Besides, compared to them, the teacher doesn't know anything."

Jamie got the impression that Sleipnir was also trying to convince himself that he could skip class.

He rolled his eyes. "You hate breaking the smallest of rules, dude, you'd rather do physics."

"Oh come on," Emmet said, leaning against the wall and smirking. "We're wasting time, let him come, it'll be fun."

Jamie glanced at the lanky teen. He was taller than most people in the school, Jamie and Sleipnir included. Jamie guessed that came with the territory if you were 16 and held back a few years because of poor attendance, misbehaviour and awful grades. Emmet blew his limp brown hair out of his face and grinned innocently. Typical.

Irritation flared through him. All Emmet wanted to do was confuse and tease and mock Sleipnir. Because that's what he did. Jamie knew that once upon a time he would have found it funny, or at least tried to. But, however stupid and strange Sleipnir was he had a weird urge to protect the kid. It would be like kicking a puppy. Sleipnir didn't deserve it.

Caring about people wasn't how his and Emmet's friendship worked though, and Emmet would find these thoughts hilarious. So, what to say, how to convince him to leave Sleipnir alone without looking weak.

"He'll just get us caught, and you know it," he settled on.

"No I won't!"

"Come on J, give him a chance, you shouldn't put him down so much. Have some faith in the kid, he's meant to be your friend, isn't he?" Emmet said easily, grabbing Jamie round the shoulders in a way that was meant to appear friendly, but hurt too much for it to actually be.

"Please," Sleipnir, whose eyes had lit up at Emmet's words, begged. "I don't want to go to Miss Richardson's class."

Jamie gritted his teeth. "You know this isn't gonna make you cool, but it could get you excluded, right?"

Sleipnir shrugged, clearly trying to be chill about it, but Jamie could see that he was as tense as a wire.

"On your fucking head be it then," Jamie snapped, and stormed off round the side of the school without caring if the other two were following.

He glanced around before weaving his way past the dumpsters. There were only a few straggling kids left on the playground, and no teachers to see him. He climbed up the rusty access ladder and onto the kitchen roof before sitting down in the corner, making sure he couldn't be seen from the ground.

Sleipnir's head appeared over the corner of the roof. He looked crazy anxious. "You're an idiot." Jamie said.

"So you told me on the day we met," Sleipnir replied, attempting a smile. His voice had a far less noticeable accent than it had done the day that they first met, but it still had a weird edge to it that Jamie couldn't place.

"Get down before someone sees you." Jamie rolled his eyes.

Sleipnir swung his legs over the brick ledge that surrounded the roof before making his way over to Jamie and dropping down beside him.

"I can't believe I'm actually doing this!" Sleipnir said, his eyes lighting up in what seemed to be a mixture of excitement and sheer terror.

"Yeah, neither can I," Jamie retorted drily.

"So… what do you guys normally do up here?"

"Smoke, usually," Emmet said, dropping down beside the two of them.

"If you snitch, I'll kill you," Jamie said quickly, because what else was he meant to do except threaten in a situation like this? He wasn't sure why he was so bothered, after all, it wasn't like he really minded getting into trouble. Then again, this wouldn't be the ordinary kind of trouble, after all, his parents would definitely be called in and that would definitely not go well. It wasn't like they would particularly care that he was smoking and skipping lessons, but they would if he were 'wasting their time'. Still, the thrill of the freedom of it was worth the danger of getting caught.

"I'm not gonna snitch," Sleipnir said, but he didn't sound sure. Great. "But why do you do that? Doesn't it turn your lungs all horrible and give you that… thing… where your cells mutate and try to kill you?"

"You're adorable," Emmet said, then held his hand out and gestured to Jamie. "Go on then, hand one over."

Jamie sighed and dug through his bag, trying to find where he'd stuffed the packet. "I mean it," he shot a warning glance to Sleipnir, "you'll die."

"No!" Sleipnir actually looked on the verge of crying. " _You'll_ be the one that'll die!"

Emmet collapsed on the floor in raucous laughter.

"Shut up, man," Jamie said through gritted teeth, only just resisting thumping him. "Someone'll hear us."

Emmet managed to calm down enough that he was able to turn to Sleipnir and say, "Do you want one then?"

" _Dude!_ "

"Well… it wouldn't kill me…"

"Right, because you're so special, can't get lung cancer like the rest of us." Jamie snapped. "I'm not wasting these on you."

"Then why do you use them?"

"Because I don't give a shit what happens in the future, it's only gonna get worse, may as well have fun now. You, kid, have a future and a parent that clearly actually gives a shit about you. It's a waste of your time, you don't need this."

"Oh lighten up J and stop babying him, when did you become such a drag, jeez."

"Fuck off." Jamie said. It was the only appropriate response.

"Whatever, just give me mine, I'll share it with him if you're too much of a pussy to."

"Pff, yeah right, I dunno what _diseases_ you have."

"You wanna go, dickhead?"

Jamie grinned, well if Emmet wanted a fight…

"Please stop arguing," Sleipnir whispered. Jamie turned to see him, pale and shaky.

"This isn't arguing, we haven't even started punching each other yet." Jamie laughed. "But sure, we'll stop." He sighed and gave in. "You can have a puff of mine and see what you think, I'm not wasting a whole one on you." Chances were Sleipnir would take one puff and hate it anyway.

And with that, Jamie snatched a cigarette out of the packet and lit it with ease before chucking the packet and the lighter over to Emmet.

He took a drag and made sure not to cough even though the first inhale always stung the back of his throat, Emmet would never have let him live it down. He didn't like the burn, he didn't like the taste of it, but it calmed him, and he couldn't _not_ smoke, it practically came with the territory in his family. Besides, whenever he went too long he started to crave it. Anyway, it didn't matter much did it? There were worse things to be addicted to, he knew.

He took a few more puffs before holding it out to Sleipnir.

"Here, you hold it like this, see." Sleipnir, wide eyed, reached out and took it cautiously. "And remember, you're _breathing_ in, don't try to swallow it."

"This reminds me of when we taught you how to smoke," Emmet laughed. Jamie ignored him.

Sleipnir placed the cigarette between his lips and took a deep breath in. To Jamie's surprise he didn't start coughing.

"Huh, that's a tad poisonous and gross tasting," Sleipnir observed, looking down at the cigarette held a bit too tightly between his fingers.

"But you didn't hate it?" Jamie asked, bewildered.

"Have you ever tried eating hay? That's _way_ more gross."

Jamie blinked in confusion as Sleipnir took another experimental inhale.

"Ha, he's a natural."

Jamie rolled his eyes at Emmet.

"Well," Sleipnir said, wrinkling his nose. "It's not too bad I guess, but I wouldn't want to do this for fun like you guys do."

"If you want the fun stuff I'm sure we could find a joint for you to try."

Jamie's blood boiled,he had just about had enough of him. "Fuck off, Emmet, he's fourteen."

"What's a…"

"So are you, and-"

"Hello?" A woman's voice called up from below them. Jamie's desire to throw himself on Emmet and punch the kid bloody did a full one eighty and suddenly all he wanted to do was disappear.

"Fuck," he hissed, then gestured to the other two to get behind the metal vent that extracted the hot air from the kitchen. It was a last ditch effort and was doomed to failure but he was damned if was wasn't going to try. Emmet was already on the move but Sleipnir was frozen, cigarette in his left hand, staring like a deer in the headlights.

Jamie tried to leap to his feet to grab Sleipnir but fell down again with a muffled gasp as he landed on the end of his left foot and a sharp pain shot through his knee.

This seemed to pull Sleipnir out of his reverie and he was up in a flash. He picked Jamie up with ease and Jamie would have been a lot more surprised by this only it took all of his effort not to scream as his knee was jostled around.

Sleipnir dropped him unceremoniously down on the ground behind the vent and he couldn't help but yell out that time.

"I know you're up there," the woman said. "And fine, if you don't want to answer me, I'm coming up." Her voice was clearer this time and as Jamie strained his ears he could now hear the tap tap of her shoes as she climbed up the ladder.

He glanced down at his leg. Shit, it would be barely half hidden from her gaze, there was no way she wouldn't see it. Sleipnir hadn't had time to put him down properly. He tried to move it, excruciating pain shot through his whole leg.

Well, they were fucked.

He turned desperately to Sleipnir only to find that the kid had completely shut down and gone into some kind of trance. He didn't react at all to Jamie frantically shaking him.

He heard the crunch of the teacher's shoes on the roof and looked down at his traitorous leg, cursing it. It shimmered. He tilted his head. It was like his leg couldn't decide whether it was there or not. What was happening? Was it the pain? Had something been added to the cigarette? Well, he wasn't buying anything from Dylan again. Shit, on top of everything when the teacher found him he would be high as well.

He'd given the same cigarette to Sleipnir too.

Fuck, he'd given the kid drugs. He turned desperately towards the kid, who still looked like he was in a trance. Well, that would explain the weirdness wouldn't it. What had he _done_?

"So," the teacher said, thoroughly pissed off. "You're telling me that I just climbed all the way up here when the kids are clearly on the field? Wow. Well done Rebecca. And you can't even see who they are at this distance? Well. If this isn't an accurate summary of your entire life. Ugh. I'm so done."

 _What?_

She sighed again. Jamie stared at his leg. It was _so obvious_ (well, not to him, but he was reacting to the cigarettes), how could she not see it? Maybe she had decided she couldn't be bothered to deal with them? That made no sense.

"I should probably follow them shouldn't I? Instead of talking to myself? Yep. That would be the mature, adult, responsible thing to do. Ugh. How is this my life?"

Jamie shook his head in amazement as he heard her climb down the ladder. What the hell had just happened?

Suddenly, Sleipnir relaxed and slumped forwards, his head slammed into the floor.

"Ow," he groaned quietly before pushing himself up into a sitting position and looking around at everything with half-focused eyes. "Huh, I can't believe that worked."

"Neither can I, like, half my leg was in full view!" Jamie whispered.

"Yeah, what happened to your leg, man?" Emmet hissed.

"I don't know, I got up quickly and twisted it or something and something happened. I can't move it, it hurts like a bitch."

"How are you going to get down from here?" Emmet asked, and Jamie's heart sank into his stomach. That teacher may as well have found him. Hiding here had done _nothing_ in the long term. Nothing except piss the teacher off more probably when he was eventually found up here.

Still, at least Emmet and Sleipnir could leave. That wasn't really an upside though, anger flared inside of him at the thought of how Emmet had asked how _he_ was going to get down. Emmet would have no problem abandoning him here. Sleipnir would probably stay here though, like a loyal puppy, and that would make everything even worse.

He sighed and with a practiced ease he turned his despair into frustration and he opened his mouth to lash out at Emmet.

That was when Sleipnir said, "I could feel it, to see if it's broken or dislocated. We might be able to do something to help it a bit, to help you get down?"

Jamie shrugged. "Sure, you can't make it any worse can you?"

He clenched his jaw and was sure to not let any tears escape from his eyes as Sleipnir pulled up his ratty jeans so he could see his left knee. He almost bit through his lip as Sleipnir put a hand on his knee, bracing for the pain.

Nothing happened.

All he could feel was a slight tingling and Sleipnir's clammy hand. But it didn't hurt.

"Um, I don't think anything's wrong with it," Sleipnir said hesitantly.

"Bullshit," Jamie said, attempting to move his leg just to prove Sleipnir wrong. It moved with ease. No pain. Nothing. "What the hell?"

"Maybe you just got cramp?" Emmet suggested.

"Maybe…" Jamie said, flummoxed. "Maybe it was a trapped nerve or something."

"It _absolutely wasn't_ a dislocated kneecap," Sleipnir said very intently and earnestly.

"Sure…" Jamie agreed. God, Sleipnir was weird.

"I think," Emmet said, "I'm just gonna go to the end of class and pretend I'm late to school because our car broke down."

"You know what, I'm with you there," Jamie agreed. "The batteries in my alarm clock died and I didn't wake up."

"I'm going home," Sleipnir said, looking dazed again. "I'm too magi- too exhausted for school right now."

"Are you kidding me? We almost got caught skipping class and now you want to skip school." Jamie said, incredulous. What had gotten into the kid today?

"Yup. I feel like I'm gonna throw up, or faint, maybe both." He got out his insanely fancy phone and tapped a few buttons. Jamie caught Emmet eyeing it with interest and glared at him. He knew full well that Emmet had been the cause of several of the thefts at the school over the last few years. "Hey Jarvis," he said, holding the phone up to his ear.

"Hello Sleipnir." Jamie could faintly hear the voice on the other end of the line, it sounded posh and British. "What can I do for you now, shouldn't you be in physics?"

"I need to come home. I really, really can't stay at school today, could you ask Dad if you can come collect me?"

And of course Sleipnir had a dad who would be willing to collect him from school if he felt like shit. Jamie rolled his eyes.

"Your father is in a meeting with the security council at the moment. I know he would not hesitate to come and collect you, but would you consent to having Thor collect you instead. He is currently watching a history documentary with Captain Rogers."

"Um yeah," Sleipnir said. "That would be fine."

"One moment," Jarvis said.

"I'm off," Emmet said during the pause that followed, strolling towards the ladder. "You coming?"

"I…"

"No, of course you're not." Emmet scoffed.

"I wanna find out what's happening," Jamie defended himself.

"Yeah whatever, see you tomorrow, man."

Jamie sighed internally at the reminder, but he supposed when your parents worked together there wasn't really much choice in the matter.

"Thor said he would be delighted to collect you and he will be with you in less than half an hour. Would you like me to mark your absence down as authorised on the school's system?"

"That would be great, J. Hey, could you mark my friends Jamie and Emmet down as authorised as late too?"

"I am not sure that is entirely advisable…"

"Please, they were helping me, please, I don't have many friends."

 _Emmet is not your friend,_ Jamie thought, irritation coursing through him. _And honestly I'm not sure if you should think I'm your friend either. Clearly I suck at being a friend._

"Alright, only this once," Jarvis conceded and Sleipnir broke out into a grin.

"Thanks J, you're the best!"

"Was that your butler?" Jamie demanded incredulously when Sleipnir had hung up.

"No…" Sleipnir said.

"Then who is he?"

"Uh, a family friend, I guess…"

"A family friend who will just hack into the school system?"

"I guess."

"Oh my God, I'm never gonna figure you out am I? And your whole family's so _weird_!"

Sleipnir just looked exhausted.

"Why would you do that for me anyway?"

"Because you're a good friend and you help me out all the time."

"Yeah…" he wasn't sure if he agreed with that, now wasn't the time to dispute it though. "But Emmet isn't."

Sleipnir shrugged. "He's still nicer than most of the people I've met my whole life."

"Well. That sucks." Jamie said, because it did, and because he was at a loss for words.

"Yeah," Sleipnir said, slumping back against the vent.

Thirty seconds of silence later Jamie realised that Sleipnir had fallen asleep.

Well, what was he meant to do now?

He guessed Sleipnir needed his sleep, and he should probably stay to wake him up when his uncle arrived, plus, he really needed to check that he didn't have a worse reaction than exhaustion to whatever was in that cigarette. He didn't really want to risk someone coming back and him being actually caught today, but at the same time he wasn't that fussed about showing up to physics either.

He pulled out his phone. It was on 11%. Well, he could do homework for once maybe.

25 minutes and one school-bell signifying the end of first period later Jamie had mostly done his English homework, which was actually much more interesting than he had expected, when Sleipnir's phone rang.

 _Uncle Thor._

Jamie shook Sleipnir awake.

He looked at him with bleary eyes. "What?"

"Your uncle."

"Oh," Sleipnir took the proffered phone. "Okay." He fumbled sleepily with the phone for a bit before managing to press the green icon. "Hi!"

"Hello nephew! I am outside your school. Would you like me to come in and get you?"

The guy also sounded posh and British, like Jarvis, but louder and more enthusiastic. He wondered if a lot of Sleipnir's family came from England.

"No, it's okay." Sleipnir yawned. "I can come to you. Give me a few minutes."

"If you are sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure, see you in a bit."

"Goodbye."

Jamie looked sceptically at the teen who seemed to be having trouble with the motor control needed to put his phone back in his rucksack. "Are you actually going to be able to get down the ladder without falling?"

"The fall won't kill me."

Jamie face-palmed. Sleipnir had no sense sometimes.

"Right, because being sleep deprived makes you immortal. You're only human, dude, you'll end up with broken bones at least."

Sleipnir laughed.

"Oh whatever, I don't care," Jamie snapped.

"Okay," Sleipnir replied complacently, clearly internally calling bullshit on that.

"Give me your bag," Jamie muttered. Sleipnir passed it to him. "And I'm going down the ladder first," he said as he adjusted the straps so it would fit over his bag when he put it on his back.

"So I can fall on you and break your neck?" came the dry reply.

"You know what?" Jamie said, tilting his head and staring at Sleipnir. "When you're not confused or scared shitless you're actually kinda funny."

"Oh, thanks," Sleipnir said, brightening. "Genuinely though, let me go first, I'll only crush you, and because we are totally both human we'll both be dead."

"Fine. But I accept no responsibility when you die horribly."

"Okay." And with that Sleipnir swung himself over the edge and climbed down the ladder. Surprisingly, he made it to the bottom in one piece.

"You've never done something like this," Jamie started, "so you need to know that when we walk to the gate we do it with confidence, like we're meant to be leaving. That way, if we're lucky, no-one'll question us."

Sleipnir nodded, and they made their way towards the low green gates. Sleipnir, ever unable to be calm, didn't succeed at the 'we're meant to be leaving' part, but Jamie thought that he made up for it himself with his nonchalant swagger.

Sleipnir opened the gate and Jamie followed him through.

That was when Jamie saw Sleipnir's uncle.

He was tall, with a strong jaw, and muscles that rippled under his form fitting, long sleeved t-shirt.

If Sleipnir were to tell him about skipping class and smoking... well… he wouldn't come out of this in a good shape.

Thor had already enveloped Sleipnir in a tight hug and Jamie thought that if he ran back into school now he might get out of this unscathed.

That's when he saw the goat. It stuck its head out of the open back window and started bleating.

The? Hell?

"Why did you bring Einstein?" Sleipnir asked, laughing. _Einstein?_

"I thought that he might cheer you up," Thor said. "Only perhaps bringing him was not such a good idea as he had eaten a lot of the back seat."

"Tony's gonna lose his mind."

"It is fine, your father can fix it magically."

"Yeah, I really don't think…"

"The goat's called Einstein?" Jamie exclaimed, the cogs suddenly falling into place. Then he realised that he'd drawn attention to himself, and Sleipnir, and, more importantly, his uncle, were staring at him.

"Yes, my girlfriend named him," Thor said jovially, a word that before Jamie would have said only really belonged to Father Christmas. "We thought he looked the most intelligent of the flock."

"Yeah, and then we found out he was a total dumbass," Sleipnir said.

"Well, I think he's a very nice goat, sir," Jamie said, trying to sound casual and very aware that Sleipnir was now staring at him incredulously. "And well, I should probably be getting back to class before anyone misses me and-"

"Nonsense, I have not yet thanked you for taking care of my nephew."

"Well, consider me thanked," Jamie said stiffly, thoroughly aware that if it hadn't been for him (and Emmet) Sleipnir would never have smoked a (potentially drugged up) cigarette, skipped class, and risked being excluded. "Sir," he added, as an afterthought, as you had to be polite to guys like Thor.

Sleipnir was now openly gaping at him.

Thor frowned. "At least have a poptart," he said, turning and grabbing a box off the dashboard. He offered a packet to Jamie, who took it automatically, before handing the rest of the box to Sleipnir.

"You should eat these," he said. "I brought them along as a treat to make you feel better, but looking at you I can see that you have magically exhausted yourself and-"

"Thor!" Sleipnir snapped. Jamie didn't think he'd ever seen Sleipnir so angry before. And Sleipnir was actually willing to get mad with someone as dangerous as Thor? What was he doing?

"Oh. It was a... 'turn of phrase'?"

"Sure," Jamie agreed, ready to say anything to get out of the situation.

"Good," said Thor.

"Right," said Sleipnir.

"I should probably go then," said Jamie, trying for the second time.

"Of course," said Thor. "I hope we will meet again some time." Jamie sincerely hoped the opposite. "I am so glad that Sleipnir has made friends here."

Jamie nodded, his mouth dry.

"Thanks for sticking with me, Jamie," Sleipnir said, his smile wide and genuine.

"Anytime," Jamie said, trying desperately to sum up some of his usual bravado. "See you Monday?"

"Sure."

"And, um, thank you, sir, for the poptart."

"You are most welcome."

And with that Jamie turned and walked as quickly as he possibly could back towards the school, his heart hammering in his chest.

"Your friend is awfully formal for a Midgardian," he heard Thor say as he walked away, he must have misheard the last word though because it was total gibberish.

"I… guess…" came the reply from the clearly bewildered Sleipnir.

He made his way back inside the school, explained to the disapproving woman in reception that his alarm had broken so he had woken up super late, received a detention for tardiness and lying that he couldn't be bothered to dispute, and sauntered into geography fifteen minutes late.

The teacher was explaining tectonic plates or something. He stared at the board, not seeing anything, and thought about what had happened that morning.

'Magical' Thor had said.

It couldn't be, that was ridiculous… and yet… it might explain why his knee got better so quickly, why they hadn't been caught, Sleipnir's trance, his exhaustion. Also why Sleipnir didn't seem bothered about falling off a roof. It would explain… a lot… actually.

But no, that was stupid. Magic couldn't exist, otherwise life wouldn't be so shit. It was easier to believe that he started seeing things because of the pain or because something had been added to his cigarette. Maybe Sleipnir was involved in some weird cult that believed in magic? Yes. That would make sense. It would explain why he was so odd, why his uncle was so strange.

Firmly resolved to keep to his logical reasoning of events Jamie half-heartedly filled in the worksheet and waited for the ringing of the bell that would signal the start of recess.

-Q-

Six hours later found Loki sitting on the edge of Sleipnir's bed and wondering why on Earth he still wanted to learn to teleport today.

"Sleipnir, you exhausted yourself earlier," he said, smiling gently and running his hand through his son's hair. "I really don't think that now's the time to teach you teleportation."

"But you promised!"

"Yes, but that was before I came home to find you tucked up in bed and Thor begging me to reverse the irreversible damage Einstein had done to Tony's 1968 Mercedes."

"Honestly," Sleipnir said seriously. "The fact that you found me tucked up in bed is a key point in this argument. I slept for five hours. I feel wide awake and if I'm gonna manage to get to sleep tonight after sleeping for that long I _need_ to use up some energy."

Loki rolled his eyes fondly. It was hard to refuse Sleipnir anything when he was like this because the progress he had made was incredible. Less than a year ago he'd been an eight legged horse for half a century and now he could make a logical and reasoned argument. "Fine, but we're starting with theory first and there'll be no actual teleporting this afternoon if I don't think you're up to it."

"Thanks Dad," Sleipnir said, springing up to hug him.

"So, any chance that this means you'll tell me what happened at school today to make you use so much magic?"

"I cast quite a few complicated illusions." Sleipnir said, clearly back on his guard.

"And your reasons for that were?" Loki asked.

"It's a secret," he muttered.

"Sleipnir." Loki sighed. "You can't do this. If it was for fun then you're putting yourself in danger by risking people finding out about your magic. And if you used it in an emergency then you're putting yourself in danger by not telling me what happened. I want to protect you."

Sleipnir remained quiet for some moments before speaking.

"I thought I was in danger, but I wasn't. I was hiding from a teacher."

Loki sensed that that wasn't the whole truth, but still, it was better than nothing.

"No one realised you used magic, did they?"

Sleipnir shook his head. "No, they would definitely have said something if they had. Besides, I was really careful."

"Okay," Loki said. "Come on, I'll take you out into the garden. I want you to concentrate on how you feel when I teleport us."

Sleipnir nodded eagerly and scrambled out of bed, clearly ecstatic about beginning the next stage of his magical education.

They emerged out onto the windswept clifftop. The cool spring breeze blew around them and Loki opened his eyes to see the goats off in the mid-distance stopping their chewing of grass for a few moments to stare curiously at the sudden new arrivals. The seagulls screeched overhead and Loki smiled. It was peaceful here, wide and open, free, it was a good place to be.

"Did you feel how your magic reacted to that?" Loki asked.

"Yeah, I did!" Sleipnir said, a huge grin on his face.

"Good," Loki said. "Now if you want to get anywhere, anywhere at all, you've got to hold onto that feeling and recreate it with your own magic."

He went on to explain the other key steps of of teleportation; closing your eyes and imagining where you are going, making that image as real as possible, and stepping forward into that image taking your whole body with you. Sleipnir hung onto every word.

"So," he said, once he was sure that Sleipnir understood and his son wasn't going to end up on a desert island on the other side of Midgard, "I'm going to teleport you a few more times and then, if you're feeling up to it, you can have a go."

He took Sleipnir's hand and the next second they were standing next to Einstein. The goat let out a concerned bleat and some of the grass he had been chewing fell out of his mouth. Sleipnir patted the goat on the head comfortingly.

Then Loki took Sleipnir back to where they had started.

He took a deep breath and looked Sleipnir in the eyes. "Are you sure you're ready for this, because we can do this another day if you aren't."

"I was born ready," Sleipnir stated, a fiery determination in his eyes. Loki thought of the pathetically small baby that had squirmed about on the floor of the cave he had given birth in and for some reason couldn't help but burst out laughing at that. "It's not funny!" Sleipnir protested.

"Of course it's not," Loki nodded, pulling himself together. Sleipnir sent him a suspicious mock-glare.

"Right," Sleipnir said, turning towards the goats and closing his eyes. Loki took a deep breath, he wasn't exactly nervous about his son ripping himself apart, that was impossible (and actually a rather disturbing aspect to the _Harry Potter_ books), but he was worried about his son teleporting and ending up in the middle of nowhere.

Sleipnir stepped forwards and fell flat on his face.

He was up in a flash before Loki had even had time to help him. "I'm gonna do it this time." he declared.

He didn't.

"Perhaps you should teleport with me a few more times?" Loki suggested.

"No. I can do this. Just one more try. Third time lucky, right?" Sleipnir said, seeming to glare at Einstein.

Then he was gone.

Loki jumped back in shock.

"Woohoo!" Sleipnir's voice came from across the field. Einstein turned and fled in the opposite direction. "I did it Dad, I actually did it!"

The next second Loki found himself with an armful of Sleipnir.

Sleipnir looked up at him, his eyes shining. "I teleported twice!"

"Yeah, you did," Loki said. "And I'm so proud of you."

And he was. He was grateful that Laufey had convinced him to teach Sleipnir because at that moment his heart felt like it was going to burst he was so unbelievably happy.

-Q-

"So, is there any reason you're rifling through my desk drawers at 2am, kid?" a voice came from behind Sleipnir. He swung round to see Tony, complete with a bedhead and crumpled pyjamas, standing in the doorway with his arms folded.

Crap.

"Uhhh," he said eloquently.

"Genuinely kid I'm gonna need an answer because there's some dangerous stuff down here and you know you're not allowed down here on your own."

Sleipnir stared at him, eyes wide, breath coming in short gasps. He wanted to leave but he felt too dizzy to do anything but stand there.

"Hey, hey Sleipnir, it's okay, you're okay," he heard Tony's voice say. Feeling as though he were drifting around on an ocean Sleipnir was vaguely aware that Tony had guided him to a sofa and that he was holding him, chattering inanely about the applications of particle accelerators.

"Tony…" Sleipnir said, his voice weak.

"Hey, you back with me, kid?"

Sleipnir nodded. "I think so."

"I'm not mad at you, you know that right? I'm just scared."

"Yeah," Sleipnir replied, allowing the words to sink in.

"Right," Tony said. "Well there wasn't anything in that drawer that isn't in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom unless you were looking for chlorophyll or nicorette. I'm not angry, I did the same at your age too, but you've been smoking with your friends, haven't you?"

Sleipnir remained silent. This was awful, he'd _promised_ to keep it a secret. He couldn't betray Jamie's trust like this.

"I'm gonna take that silence as a yes," Tony said, and Sleipnir cringed. "How many have you had?"

"Just one," Sleipnir whispered. There was no point denying it.

"Just one?" Tony repeated before collapsing back against the coach and shaking with laughter. "Oh God, I was so worried. Kid listen, you don't need to take these, you won't be addicted after only having one."

"They weren't for me," he admitted. "But you can't ask which of my friends I was gonna give them to, it's a secret!"

"I won't," Tony assured him and Sleipnir breathed a sigh of relief. "This friend, do you think they're addicted?"

Sleipnir shrugged. "I don't know. He might be. I'm really worried because I don't want him to get sick because of it. Jarvis told me all about nicotine earlier and he said that nicotine gum could help stop the addiction. I remembered seeing some in your drawer. I'm sorry that I was trying to steal from you."

"Well, I guess there was no harm done," Tony said and Sleipnir allowed himself to relax a bit more. "But you don't want to give your friend these, they're way out of date. I used to take them when I smoked cigars with Obie, I'd get cravings sometimes when I was working and I didn't want to stop to smoke so I'd just take some of them."

"So, you didn't take them to stop smoking because you were worried about your health?" Sleipnir asked.

"Not really," Tony shrugged. "I had to stop after Afghanistan because there was this in my chest," he pinged the arc reactor. "But before that I was just living in the moment, ignoring the future because it didn't look good."

Sleipnir wrinkled his nose in thought. "That's kinda like what my friend said to me. He said he smoked because he didn't care about the future and he just wanted to enjoy himself now. But he said I shouldn't because I actually had a future."

"Yeah, well, he's right about that, kid." Tony pulled out his phone and got up the internet. "Now let's order some that are actually in date and you can give them to him on Monday, 'kay?"

"Okay," Sleipnir said.

"And Sleipnir," Tony said seriously. "I don't want you to smoke again, you might think it'll help you be cool, but it's not worth it, not in the long run. And I want you to tell me when things like this happen, because I've been there, and I can help you, I don't want you ending up like me, kid."

"But you're awesome!" Sleipnir protested, utterly bewildered.

"Me in my twenties then," Tony conceded. "I was kind of a train wreck back then. And hey, if you think your friend is in trouble, and needs more help than some nicorette gum, we'll figure it out, okay."

"Okay," Sleipnir agreed, slumping against Tony and yawning. The anxiety had hid it from him before but God he was tried. Suddenly a thought hit him. "Are you gonna tell Dad about this?" he demanded, shooting upright again.

"No," Tony said, and Sleipnir relaxed a bit, but frowned in confusion. "This can stay between us if you want it to. But for what it's worth, I think you should tell your dad, he deserves to know, and he was really worried about you today."

"But he'll be really disappointed in me!"

Tony smiled fondly at him and shook his head. "No he won't, he'll be proud of you for telling him the truth, like he's always proud of you. You hit the jackpot for Dads, kid."

Sleipnir smiled softy and hugged Tony tight. "Yeah, I know, Iron Dad."

 ** _Whoa this was a loong chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it though!_**

 ** _Next up: Hydra comes out of the shadows_**  
 ** _Who the hell is Bucky?_**

 ** _Side note: I think I've replied to every review from the last chapter, I apologise profusely if I haven't, things have been so insane and I figured you guys would just want me to use this time to get the new chapter out._**

 _ **I haven't said so for ages but my tumblr is stardustloki for fandom and deborah-writes for writing**_


	13. Who the Hell is Bucky?

_**Hey, I haven't updated this is forever, life happens, but whatever, you get**_ **three chapters** _ **in one this afternoon.**_

 _ **What's happened so far?**_  
 _ **\- Everyone's living in Malibu together**_  
 _ **\- Tony and Loki find Captain America**_  
 _ **\- Steve wakes up in the 21st century, he comes downstairs to find a) a room full of people (some of which are blue) b) that most of his friends are dead. Fun times! :|**_  
 _ **\- Steve and Tony get off to a shaky start but they have a tentative friendship going at the moment**_  
 _ **\- Tony, Loki, Bruce, Erik and Jane have helped to create an Einstein Rosen bridge.**_  
 _ **\- Darcy has been on Asgard, and helping to negotiate the JAM (Jotunheim, Asgard, Midgard) Agreement**_  
 _ **\- Hydra are worried about this development and think that it will affect their plans for controlling the world. The winter soldier gets woken up**_  
 _ **\- (Also, Sleipnir starts school)**_

 _ **19/01/20 - Chapter 1 of 3**_

 **Chapter Thirteen - Who the hell is Bucky?**

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are gathered here today to celebrate the remarkable contributions to science, and to the future of this planet, made by five of the people in this room."

Steve joined in with the enthusiastic applause as he stared up at President Ellis. The President was standing behind a podium in front of the delighted (or rather mostly bewildered and sceptical) guests and looking amiably around at them all.

Steve, who, thanks to Jarvis's history lessons, had heard some of the disastrous things presidents had done in the past, had been wary of an Ellis being informed of the Einstein Rosen Bridge before other world leaders. However, as the bridge was on American soil and so was the UN (at which the other countries would be informed of the developments tomorrow) his knowledge was somewhat necessary.

Besides, there wasn't really anything much he could fault Ellis on. He had steered the country through the financial crisis and done his best to help all of the American people recover. The minimum wage had risen and the economy was booming. He had a good relation with the Native American peoples and had stopped developers and contractors (and the government) stripping them of more of their lands. He and his government had even managed to return some land and helped to control the flow of tourists desecrating sacred grounds. Through his work, money and ressources had been pumped into the middle east after the war on terror had ended, and schemes had been put in place to help the people there rebuild. Although the help wasn't always wanted by the people there, analysts suggested that this had led to a serious drop in the growth of extremist groups in the area. Of course, not everyone liked Ellis, but he was a skilled negotiator and expert about seeing everyone's needs and taking them into account. As a result, he had a very high approval rating, even from his critics.

The President thanked them all for being there, even remembering to acknowledge the SHIELD agents stationed up on the balcony that surrounded the room. Many important scientists and politicians were there so they were instrumental in protecting them.

Steve, officially, with his iron-clad fake ID and the face of some random person Loki knew from Asgard, was there as Tony, Loki, Bruce, Jane and Erik's bodyguard. Unofficially, Steve Rogers was there because he was interested in the event, wanted to come along to support his friends, and wanted to get out of the house. Thor, who didn't do well at stuffy events in which he was expected to keep still and quiet, had forgone being Jane's date in favour of babysitting duty.

So, here Steve was, at what was one of the most important dinners this century, sitting at a round table with his friends, and listening to President Ellis speak.

"But, before I present the awards to the five main scientists involved in this project, and before we all get tucked into the meal I'm sure you're all dying to get started on, I must say a few words about the worldwide and intergalactic logistics of this project." Ellis began.

"Tomorrow morning, the United Nations will be informed of the existence of the Einstein Rosen bridge. I am certain that the majority of countries will have a hard time believing it, as I'm sure many of you still do, having not seen the working bridge yourselves as I have," he gave a wry smile at this last remark.

"Each country and/or body of countries, will negotiate separately with Asgard and Jotunheim. I realise that this might seem counter-intuitive to the interests of the United States, or even a threat to national security, as we will not be able to control negotiations between our off-world allies and Russia, for instance. But, I promise you all, this course of action is only safeguarding America's interests.

"Trying to keep this from other nation states will only provoke war and lead to the destruction of our country, our planet, our home. They will already be against us after learning that the Einstein-Rosen Bridge has been built on American soil, and allowing other countries to lead their own negotiations will go some way in counteracting the bad will caused by this. In addition, any resources or intelligence shared by the Asgrdians or Jotuns will be closely monitored by everyone involved to insure that no weapons or-"

President Ellis slumped forwards over the podium.

Steve leapt to his feet automatically, ready to spring into action and help the President however he could.

Amongst the general murmur of confusion that sprang up in the next few seconds Steve's ears picked up a few muted clicking sounds. He grabbed Tony and threw them both to the floor without even realising what he was doing.

"What the fu-" Tony yelled before a hail of bullets assaulted their ears and the firing began in earnest.

Frantically, Tony tried to wriggle out from underneath Steve, obviously trying to reach Loki. Steve wouldn't let him, he'd only get himself killed and that wouldn't help anything. Jane, Bruce and Erik flung themselves under the table, but Loki was just standing there, in full view, uncaring of the bullets raining down on them.

Bruce was gripping the table leg with a ferocious determination as his skin rippled an eerie green colour. Jane, with tears in her eyes, was bleeding heavily from her left shoulder. Erik gripped Jane tightly while clearly staring with horror at where Loki was standing.

But. Wait…

Had the shooting stopped? The sound of gunfire seemed muted somehow and now Steve could clearly hear people shrieking, sobbing and - he took a deep breath when he recognised something he had never hoped to hear again - choking on their own blood.

He poked his head out from under the table. A small pellet hit him gently on the nose and pinged onto the floor.

He looked up. The bullets seemed to be caught in some sort of green mist. They were moving still, but after hitting the mist they slowed down to a snail's pace.

Steve took a closer look at Loki. His nose was bleeding heavily and he had clearly been shot in several places, but he had an expression of utmost concentration on his face.

He had bought them some time, but he clearly wouldn't be able to protect them forever.

Steve looked wildly up at the SHIELD agents on the balcony above them, still so determinedly firing on the guests. Everyone here had walked straight into a trap, but who would have been clever enough to have designed such a thing? How had they all managed to dispose of the real agents who were meant to be guarding them? Were they _real_ SHIELD agents? How had they managed to organise this, to get this past Fury? Was Fury involved in this?

He stared at the President. Ellis was slumped over the podium, staring blankly at the crowd, a trickle of blood running down his forehead. His bodyguards lay dead on the stage beside him.

He had been assassinated. And not by the SHIELD Agents with their heavy duty guns either. This was the precise work of a sniper. Someone like Bucky could have made a shot like that.

He caught movement on the balcony out of the corner of his eye.

Ah. A sniper, probably the very same one who had just done Ellis in, had his gun aimed directly at Loki's head.

Steve jumped up on top of the table and launched himself at the balcony, throwing himself through the mist and exposing himself to the bullets of the agents.

He didn't know if the mist would be able to stop the sniper's bullet, and he wasn't about to wait and find out.

The masked and goggled sniper took a step backwards and lowered his rifle as Steve grasped onto the railing and clambered over them, clearly waiting for the agents to do their jobs and deal with him, pepper him with more that the… four bullets that they'd managed to hit him with on his ascent up to the balcony.

A whir of repulsors behind him explained why the SHIELD agents had decided to ignore him. Technically, Tony hadn't been allowed to bring his suit, no one had been allowed to take any weapons after all, but since when did Tony Stark let rules apply to him?

The man took advantage of Steve's momentary distraction to launch himself at him with lightning-fast speed. Steve didn't have time to block properly and the assassin's arm hit his jaw with the force and mercilessness of an iron bar.

Steve threw away his confusion but before the assassin's fist could make contact with his face again, a blow that Steve knew he would have blocked that time, the assassin stopped short, threw his rifle to the ground, and darted off down a corridor.

Steve was up in a flash and hot on the guy's tail.

The sniper was alarmingly fast, and Steve might actually have had trouble keeping pace had he been in peak physical condition. As it was, the four bullet wounds were slowing him down considerably and he was having difficulty keeping up. The sniper began to pull ahead.

Steve hurtled down the corridors at breakneck speeds, heart hammering in his chest, not even stopping to open doors and just ploughing straight through them instead. He took no notice of the splintering wood and the crunch of plaster that he left in his wake, Though, by the holes in the doors that were still swinging when he broke through them, the assassin seemed to be doing the same. This was actually one of the only signs that Steve was going in the right direction, two sharp corners ago he had lost sight of the man.

One of them.

He could hear everything around him, every slight detail, thanks to his superhuman abilities. It threatened to overwhelm him, but he focused on what he was looking for, ignored the screaming from downstairs, the ping of pullets hitting metal, and tuned into the irregular creaks ahead of him.

He came to dead end that led into a stairway. Damn. Up or down? He listened. This guy was good, very good, for such bulk apparently he could move in near silence when he wanted to. He heard a slight creak from above him. Up.

Steve flew up the stairs, taking them four at a time, and pushed open the creaky door to arrive onto an empty roof. The door slammed behind him. Here, he could hear nothing except for the rush of traffic and the sound of distant screams below. Where-

A huge weight slammed down onto him and knocked the air out of his lungs. The man seemed to have attached himself to Steve's waist, clinging to his back like a limpet, and without Steve's enhanced instincts he wouldn't have been able to block the blade that came for his throat with a deadly precision.

The blade went spinning off over the roof.

The man then went with the technique of trying to snap his neck. As Steve ducked and flipped him over his head he marvelled at the guy's strength, he'd never needed to worry about someone breaking his neck before, but in the split second the man had tried it Steve's instinct had kicked in, letting him know that if he didn't stop him chances were he wouldn't be getting out of this alive.

The assassin was fast and rolled over as he fell, bringing his leg up to kick Steve square in the jaw.

He tasted blood.

Oh. It was on.

The man sprang up only to meet Steve's uppercut that sent him sprawling backwards again.

The assassin got to his feet and pulled another knife from his belt. His mask had been knocked off and Steve could see that his chiselled jaw was clenched in determination. That was better, at least, Steve thought absently as the two men studied each other, poised to see who would be the first to strike. At least now he could gauge a tiny shred of emotion from the man.

The man struck out with his knife but Steve was ready for him. He blocked the knife on instinct and punched him hard in the gut. The man didn't react except to take a step backwards to brace himself.

The next thing Steve knew the assassin had flipped the knife into his other hand and was driving it towards his neck. Steve caught his wrist before the blade could hit home and grabbed the man's other fist that had been about the make contact with his jaw.

What to do now?

 _Oh well,_ Steve thought, and headbutted the man. The only problem was that the man seemed to have the same idea.

The impact made Steve's ears ring and he found himself letting the man go and stumbling backwards. Through the spots in his vision he saw the assassin rip his goggles (cracked, thanks to Steve's forehead) off and throw them away.

The man frowned at him, clearly assessing his next move, but all Steve could do was stare.

He felt like his heart had caught in his throat, like a pit of ice had settled in his stomach.

"Bucky?"

"Who the hell is Bucky?" The man asked, frowning, whipping his head round to make sure that Steve wasn't talking to anyone else. His voice was the right pitch, but his accent was almost gone, he sounded dead.

"You!" Steve exclaimed as Probably-Bucky-Even-Though-Bucky's-Dead-So-What-The-Hell? threw himself at him. Steve allowed himself to be pushed backwards, focusing only on blocking his blows, defending himself, he couldn't allow himself to hurt the man with the face of his friend.

"I do not recognise that designation," the man said shortly, kneeing Steve in the stomach.

"Oof, come on, Buck, remember me, Steve Rogers, the tiny punk who was always getting into fights in back alleys, we met in 1924 when I-"

Bucky's fist stopped an inch away from Steve. "You have been my handler?" he asked, a flicker of fear in his eyes.

"What? No! What does that even mean? We were friends!"

"I do not understand." Bucky stated, clearly torn between clocking Steve and shrinking away from him.

"Who do you think you are?" Steve asked desperately.

"The Asset," he replied, before tilting his head to one side. Steve was still trying to frantically process the last piece of information and only just managed to roll out of the way in time before the asset kicked him again.

"What?" he demanded, but Bucky didn't respond, instead stalking towards him with a deadly determination.

What followed next was a flurry of punches and kicks that ended up with Steve on the floor, unable and unwilling to fight back.

But where he expected the next punch to come there was nothing. He looked up at Bucky, his eyes were flickering rapidly about him and his limbs were trembling but he wasn't moving.

"Steve!" He heard Loki's voice and Bucky's immobile form floated a few feet away.

"Don't hurt him!" Steve begged, dragging himself to him feet to stare desperately at Loki. "He's my friend… or at least, I think he is…"

Loki raised an eyebrow.

"He was punching your lights out, buddy," Tony said, landing on the roof beside him. "Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that's how friendship works."

"No, Tony, _look_ at him. _Really_ look at him." He had to make Tony see, had to make him understand, had to be sure that what he was seeing was real.

He watched Tony look over to where Bucky was becoming more and more frantic, struggling desperately to escape from Loki's magic.

Tony paused. "Well. Just because he looks like your old friend doesn't mean that-"

"But what if he is? He said his name was 'The Asset'." Steve took a deep breath. "Tony, even if he isn't Bucky, we need to help him."

 _ **Boom, next chapter has also been uploaded.**_


	14. The Aftermath

_**This is the SECOND CHAPTER I'VE POSTED TODAY! If you haven't read the last chapter go read it.**_

 _ **19/01/20 - Chapter 2 of 3**_

 **Chapter Fourteen - The Aftermath**

"Tony, even if he isn't Bucky, we need to help him."

"Okay," Tony nodded, decisive. "Let's do this. Jarvis, scan robocop for bugs and trackers."

Loki twisted his fingers impatiently as Jarvis scanned the furious assassin, who was still squirming desperately against Loki's spell. Loki couldn't leave his friends here but every second they wasted could bring his children a step closer to danger. Something had happened to SHIELD and Tony had told him that SHIELD could disable Jarvis. He knew that his and his mother's spells should hold, should protect the children from any attackers. But, what if they didn't?

"J says that he has three trackers and one bug, as well as a communication device in his ear. He thinks a focused blast from an EMP should be able to short them out, at least temporarily. I can do that with-"

"Then do it, come on!" Loki snapped. There wasn't time for this!

Tony didn't react to his outburst bar shooting him a concerned look, and instead stuck something that looked a bit like a grenade to the man that Steve thought was his friend.

There was a fizzing sound and the EMP glowed for a few seconds. The man went limp in Loki's magical hold.

"What did you do to him?" Steve demanded, rounding on Tony. Loki didn't care what had happened, he just wanted them to leave.

Tony looked at Steve incredulously, then shrugged. "Some kind of fail-safe that forces him unconscious, maybe?" he suggested. "Maybe the trackers aren't meant to be disabled, not even by Bucky-borg here? Someone could be controlling him, I don't know. Whatever, J says he's still breathing, so he should be okay for the minute."

Just then Bruce, Jane and Erik appeared in the doorway to the roof. Jane looked very pale, her shoulder was stained with blood, and she was being supported by the other two. Luckily, Bruce still seemed hulk-free, which boded well for the building, and the innocent people inside.

"Excellent," Loki spoke up barely a second after their arrival, hardly even registering the words coming out of his mouth he was so anxious. "Can we go now?"

Steve picked up the prone body of his assassin-friend and they all huddled close together in the middle of the roof. A second later they were in the Malibu mansion.

Loki wasted no time in rushing off towards the children's room, and almost collided with Thor in the hallway.

"Brother?"

"Thor, brilliant! I need you to pack some of the children's toys. You must meet me downstairs in five minutes."

"But why… what happened?"

"Someone assassinated the president. Well, not 'someone', the man who is currently unconscious downstairs did it. Then, SHIELD agents, or people posing as them, fired on everyone in the audience. I wasn't quick enough with my shield spell and at least two dozen people are dead. Something is going on, I think there is a high chance that we were targets due to our involvement in the Einstein Rosen bridge, and we still will be targets as we weren't killed. It's not safe for them here, Thor, I can't let them get hurt."

"Are you sure you are not overreacting?" Thor asked. Loki could have strangled him. "They should be safe here with the wards, should they not?"

"If I may," Jarvis said as Loki blinked away tears of frustration, "I do not believe Loki is overreacting. I have been researching around the world for an explanation as to what happened tonight and I have managed to detect other deaths of scientists and politicians that appear to have taken place around the same time. Something very serious has been happening worldwide."

"Do we know who is responsible?"

"Not yet. SHIELD however seems to be very heavily implicated in some of these proceedings."

"There is something going on Thor, they're not safe here."

"Okay," Thor nodded. Loki would probably have felt greater relief at this had his overriding emotion not been panic. "I'll get the toys. Where are you taking them?"

"Asgard is a good starting point as we can use the bifrost to get there. But perhaps from there to Jotunheim." Loki replied, pushing open the door to the kids' room and turning on the light.

"What's going on?" Sleipnir asked sleepily, sitting up in bed and squinting at the brightness.

"We're taking a surprise holiday on Asgard, help me wake the triplets." Loki said shortly.

Sleipnir looked at him sceptically, clearly wanting to scream bullshit at Loki's 'surprise holiday' excuse. "Right. Why?"

"I don't have time for that right now. Help me wake-"

"No! I want to know what's going on!" Sleipnir glowered at him. "Something's clearly gone wrong, you can't keep me in the dark like this!"

"Someone's trying to kill all of us."

"Oh no…" Fenrir said quietly, burying himself under the covers with a squeak. Loki pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. Admitting mortal peril in a flit of irritation had not been the best move.

"Why?" Sleipnir demanded, like that was more important than getting away from here.

"I don't know, and I don't have time for these questions, we have to go now, I have to keep you safe."

"Are we leaving again?" Hel asked, tugging on Loki's suit-jacket, her voice wobbling. "You _promised_ we'd never have to do that again, you _promised_ we were safe here. You said we were going to stay here. You lied! I like it here, you can't take this away from me."

Fantastic, Sleipnir was angry, Fenrir was terrified and now Hel was crying. This was not what he needed right now.

"Hel, listen. We're not leaving for forever, we're coming back, okay, as soon as the grown ups here have dealt with some bad people."

"How long will we be gone from here?" Sleipnir questioned. Loki couldn't answer. "How. Long?"

"I don't know!"

Sleipnir's breath was now coming in short gasps. "I need to tell my friends."

"That is _not_ our priority right now."

"It's _my_ priority. Humans don't live very long! What if by the time we get back they're all dead!" And before Loki could reassure him that he was fairly sure human lifespans weren't all that short Sleipnir had bolted out of the room.

"We are leaving in _three minutes_!" Loki shouted after him.

"Harrison and Ali might be dead before we get back?" Jormungandr, now fully awake, gasped, his eyes filling with tears.

Great.

Loki almost snapped that there was a high chance that he wouldn't have seen his friends much more anyway because as much as the triplets were having a whale of a time at kindergarten the teachers were becoming overly concerned about their references to war, killing their grandfather, and Hel's detailed knowledge of the stages of a decomposing body.

He reigned himself in however. He was their parent. He was overly stressed and in a terrible mood but he _was_ responsible for their wellbeing and he couldn't make this even worse.

"I promise you they won't be. Sleipnir is feeling very anxious at the moment and he's forgotten that humans live to about eighty. I don't imagine we'll be gone very long, we probably won't even be away for a year. You will see them again."

"Except you can't keep promises can you!" Hel wailed. Loki was going to tear his hair out. This was too much.

"Don't you all want to see your grandmother?" he demanded.

"I do," Fenrir sniffled, popping his head out from under the covers.

"Wonderful, Fenrir, thank you. Would you and Stegosaurus please put your slippers and your dressing gown on and go help Uncle Thor pack your toys up."

"You're taking the toys to Asgard?" Jormungandr's eyes widened in horror. "There won't be any left here?"

Loki considered saying 'yes' but realised that lying would absolutely cause a lot more problems later. So, he settled on saying, "Well, there'll certainly be a lot less here so it will be a lot more boring."

Jormungandr considered this. "And you are _sure_ my friends won't die."

"I'm certain," Loki told him, even though he wasn't.

"I suppose," Hel said slowly, "even if all my friends do die I can go and visit them in Helheim."

"Exactly, that's the spirit, everything will be fine," Loki said. "Now, please join Fenrir in putting on your dressing gowns and your slippers and come downstairs with me so we can take the bifrost."

One minute later he breathed a sigh of relief as he shepherded the children out of the room and they went down to find Thor.

What they found was Thor, Jane and Erik in the middle of a screaming match and Sleipnir frantically throwing toys and games around the room, trying to figure out which were the most important ones.

"Are we taking Pikachu?" he asked the triplets at the same moment as Jane said: "No. I am not some breakable glass object, I am _staying_!"

" _What_ is going on here?" Loki all but screamed at the three of them.

"They have got it into their heads that I'm not safe here and they want to send me to Asgard to protect me."

"Jane you were _shot_ , people _died, please_!" Erik begged.

"You _need_ my brain, I can help here."

"And Alfar can see everything that is going on here so you can just do science from Asgard." Thor pleaded.

"But the Einstein-Rosen bridge-"

"Has been destroyed along with all research." Tony said, appearing in the doorway.

" _What_?" Jane shrieked. "That was our- our- I can't believe you'd do that. How dare you? How dare you do this without consulting us first."

"She has a point," Erik added, looking shell-shocked.

Tony shook his head. "I was an idiot, I trusted the wrong people _again_." He sighed, slumping against the doorframe. "SHIELD isn't SHIELD, it's Hydra. They've had a sleeper network inside of SHIELD for I don't know how long. They're behind the attacks. Jarvis found out two minutes ago, so I activated the grounded protocol. I won't let them have access to it, or the knowledge to build another one."

"So. All of that. For nothing." Erik said, sounding broken.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"I can't take this, I don't want to be here anymore," Jane sniffled.

"So, you will go to Asgard?" Loki asked. She nodded. Loki took a breath, relieved.

"I'm coming with you," Erik said.

"What about you?" Tony asked, turning around to the corridor behind him. "You should go, be safe."

Loki couldn't see Bruce but he could hear the man snort derisively. "It's fine, I can't be killed, I've tried."

"Right." Tony said. Loki felt like icy cold water had flooded into his stomach.

"That was too much information, wasn't it?" Bruce said as he came into view, his voice tinged with embarrassment and regret.

"Well, I'm glad you told us, buddy," Tony said, patting him on the shoulder. "Now just wasn't exactly the right moment."

Loki regarded Tony solemnly. "You're staying, aren't you?" he asked. There wasn't much point to it though, he already knew the answer.

"You know I have to," Tony replied. "I gotta stop them before this goes too far."

Loki huffed a laugh. "It's already gone too far."

"Yeah." Tony sighed. "Are you staying with the kids, or are you coming back?"

"Honestly, I don't know." Loki smiled grimly. "I should be with them, to protect them. But they should be safe with my mother, and here, with my powers, I could help stop his, I could save a lot of people."

"You know I don't want to put you in danger," Tony said. "But you're right about that."

Loki took a deep breath "Okay," he said. "Okay. I'm going to go to Asgard, check everything's okay, get the kids settled, and then I'll be back. A few hours. That's all. And… oh by the Norns where have Jane and Erik got to!?"

"They've gone with Thor to shove some important stuff into bags. They should be back soon," Sleipnir said, staring intensely at cluedo and clearly making a hard decision.

"We're running out of time!" Loki cried, tugging his hands through his hair.

"Lokes, hey, you don't know that," Tony said, drawing him into an embrace. "Clearly they're trying to off a lot of people tonight, we might not even be that high up their list."

Loki gave a dry laugh. "I just thought that we'd got past all of this, that we might finally be safe," he whispered into Tony's ear, quiet so the children wouldn't hear him.

"Guess that wasn't on the cards for us."

"Guess not."

Loki leaned into the kiss. It was beautiful and desperate and filled with anxiety and just what he needed to tether himself to reality, but he forced himself to break away. He could kiss Tony when they got back, there wasn't time for that now.

-Q-

"Are they gone?" Steve asked, looking up at Tony from where he was sitting on the floor.

Tony nodded, and tried not to think about how a part of him felt like it had been snatched away when his family had disappeared in the whirl of the bifrost. He stared down at Steve. "You know you don't have to hold his hand, right?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Maybe not," Steve said, reddening but pointedly not letting go of Bucky's hand. "But it's what he used to do for me when I was ill, or when I picked a fight I couldn't win and I couldn't move for the pain. I can't just leave him like this, alone."

"You know that might not be him, right? Someone could have given him Bucky's face as some kind of cruel prank."

"They can do that now?" Steve asked, horrified, and Tony couldn't help but laugh.

"With really advanced prosthetics, yeah." Tony shrugged, and parked himself on the back of the couch. "Didn't you see Red Skull rip his fake-face off though? This shouldn't be news to you."

"Oh yeah," Steve said, shaking his head and grimacing. "You know, I still don't know whether that was a mask or if he just got tired of wearing skin."

"Gross."

"Yeah. But wow, I can't believe I forgot that. I guess so much has happened that I just…"

Tony looked at Steve hesitantly. Was now the right time? Well, he had to tell him at some point, and they were all in danger. Time to rip the band-aid off.

"Hydra was behind the attacks."

Steve let go of Bucky's hand and sprang to his feet, horror and disbelief painting his features. "That can't be true!"

"Are we really gonna do this again?" Tony huffed, incredulous. "I'm not kidding, Steve, they're back."

"I'm not…" Steve sighed. "I'm not doubting you. I just don't want to believe this is happening. It seems like I went under the ice for no reason, like my whole sacrifice, loosing my time, losing my friends, was all for nothing."

"You literally stopped them from obliterating a city, don't be an idiot, Rogers." Tony rolled his eyes.

Steve looked awkward, and smiled weakly at him, "Yeah, I guess I did, didn't I? How did no one notice they were back until now?"

"Jarvis thinks they were hiding inside of SHIELD, a secret organisation growing inside a semi-secret organisation."

"You were working for them!?"

"Don't you think I know that?" Tony demanded. "Don't you think that after all the shit I went through with Obadiah I vowed I'd never work for an organisation hiding something like that again? Clearly I fucked up here. I destroyed the ER bridge remotely and I've wiped any trace of the science behind it from everywhere Jarvis can access. I think my security was good enough so no copies should have been made, but then again I thought my background check of SHIELD was good enough didn't I?"

He put his head in his hands and sighed. Suddenly, he felt an unexpected hand on his shoulder and he jerked away. "Hey, sorry, I just wanted to say that you did the best you could. I was meant to have destroyed Hydra back in the 40s, we both screwed up here."

Tony looked up at Steve, "Thanks," he said. They were nice words, even if he couldn't believe them.

"I failed Bucky though," Steve said. "I thought he'd died when he fell off the train, I should have gone back for him."

"No, don't beat yourself up over that, you couldn't have known."

"I should have done! After I rescued him from the camp, after Zola had experimented on him, he was ill, but then he was faster, stronger, more everything."

"At the time, did you think _you_ would have survived a fall like that?" Tony asked pointedly.

Steve shook his head. "I don't know, probably not."

"Then it's not your fault," Tony said, clapping him back on the shoulder. "Besides, we still don't know if he's actually Bucky or not. Help me get him down to the lab, we can do some more tests and remove the trackers when we're down there. First, we're gonna need some more zip ties though because I'm not happy with the amount we used on him so far. And hey, when he wakes up, I guess you might get some of the answers to your questions."

"I guess. I just can't bear to think about what they did to him, it must have been awful. I-"

The doorbell rang.

"What the hell?" Tony exclaimed, getting ready to summon the suit with his newly-made metallic bracelets. "Jarvis, I thought I said maximum security?"

"I didn't think that would apply to Ms Potts, Sir."

"Pepper?" Tony practically flew towards the door as the Iron Man suit formed around him. "Is she okay?"

"She appears to have a head wound and a broken wrist, but nothing more serious. Before you should open the door you should know that there are other-"

"Too late," Tony said, throwing the door open. He was in his suit, he wasn't in that much danger.

"Pep, Happy!" he grinned, but his smile faded when he saw the third uninvited guest. "Natasha." He turned towards the last man at the door; he was wearing faded jeans and a ratty sweatshirt, but he had a state of the art bow slung over one shoulder and arrows tucked into his belt. "Robin Hood."

"We need your help," Pepper said, and it was clear that his CEO was having a hard time keeping it together. Tony wanted to envelop her into a hug but he was pretty sure she wouldn't appreciate that when he was in the suit.

"Everyone we know is trying to kill us." Natasha said bluntly.

"Yeah, that'll be Hydra." Tony replied.

Steve appeared in the doorway behind Tony while the rest were staring at him in various degrees of shock. "Hi Pepper, Happy, and, I'm afraid I haven't met you two yet?"

"Since when did keeping you a secret involve you answering doors?" Tony rolled his eyes.

"Since Loki's glamour on me dropped when the shooting started. I don't feel like I should be a secret anymore."

"Fair enough."

"I'm Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye," the bow-and-arrow man said. "And you're…"

"Steve Rogers, yeah."

Clint whistled under his breath. "Yeah, I thought so."

"How is that possible?" Natasha asked, frowning.

"Tony and Loki found me in the ice and def-"

"Can we discuss this when we're not out in the open?" Happy demanded, looking around, agitated. "There are still people trying to kill us and as your security-"

"Sure, sure," Tony said, stepping aside to let them file past. "Jarvis has scanned you to make sure you are who you say you are, so come on through."

"Why is there an unconscious zip-tied man on the couch?" Pepper called through as Tony was closing the door.

"That's Steve's childhood friend, he assassinated the president," Tony replied, coming back into the room.

"There is too much to unpack in there," Clint muttered while Happy took some not-so-subtle steps to put himself between Tony and the unconscious man.

"Yeah there is," Tony agreed. "So…"

"I know that man," Natasha said abruptly. Tony was glad that he wasn't the only one whose nerves made him startle at her sudden interruption. "People call him the WInter Soldier. He may be sleeping on your couch but he's a ghost story, most people in the intelligence community don't believe he exists. That doesn't stop him from being credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years though. I didn't believe he existed either, not until I met him five years ago."

"What happened then?" Steve asked, frowning, clearly trying to make sense of all this.

"I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, our tyres got shot out and we went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out, but he was there. I was covering the engineer, so he shot him straight through me. The engineer died instantly, but for me, well," she lifted up her top, "bye-bye bikinis."

"Yeah, I'm sure you look terrible in them now," Steve said sarcastically.

"Oh, she doesn't," Tony reassured everyone, remembering the underwear modelling photos that SHIELD had left for him to find as part of her cover story for being his PA.

"So, how does this fit with our theory that he's Bucky?"

"Who?" Pepper asked.

"My childhood friend, James Buchanan Barnes, I thought he'd died when he fell from a train in the alps, but, here he is. How is this possible?"

Natasha considered the assassin. "Well. He hasn't aged. Theoretically, if the Winter Soldier has really carried out assassinations for the last fifty years it would mean that either he doesn't really age, or the mantle is passed on. As he looks like your friend we're left with several options; he hasn't aged, maybe he doesn't age, maybe he's been frozen like you were, maybe he's a clone and they've been using different versions of him for a long time."

"Cloned?" Steve exclaimed.

"We won't know until we talk to him and run some tests," Tony said. Steve sighed in frustration.

"So, Stark, what were you saying about Hydra earlier?" Natasha asked.

"They've been infiltrating SHIELD, for who knows how long," Tony explained. "Today they activated their sleeper cells and it seems they've been taking out anyone who poses a threat to them. We had a celebratory dinner earlier tonight, the president, and high profile scientists and politicians were there. The man we have zip tied there, Bucky, the Winter Soldier, whoever, is the one who killed the president, but SHIELD, or rather, Hydra Agents there to protect us fired on the crowd and killed people. We were lucky to get out alive. But anyway what happened to you guys?"

"Well," Pepper began, still cradling her broken wrist. That would need to be seen to as soon as possible. "Natasha and I were planning on having a girls' night, like we do most Saturday evenings when she's not on a mission."

Tony nodded, this wasn't new information to him. After their breakup it had taken Pepper and him awhile to find their footing as friends again, but they'd managed it. Their attempt to become friends again had hit a stumbling block when Pepper had told him that she and Natasha were good friends and liked to hang out together. Tony hadn't been able to understand how she could trust someone like Natasha, someone who could lie to you as easy as breathing. Honestly, he'd been really scared for Pepper, but she'd told him that he had no right to judge who she decided to become friends with given that he was swanning round with Norse gods and frost giants, and Natasha hadn't killed her, so Tony had eventually decided to let it go. It didn't mean he was happy with it though.

"Clint was in town and Happy wanted to join so we expanded our girls night and ended up eating pizza and watching movies. Suddenly the windows blew in and we were being attacked by I don't know how many people…"

"Eight," Natasha interjected.

"One of them I thought was my friend, we'd been on missions together," Clint added.

"I knew three of them," Natasha said. "Clint and I dealt with them all. We stole a car from the garage underneath Pepper's apartment building and made our way over to you. We had to steal a few more cars on our way because more people were chasing us and the cars kept getting their tyres shot out or crashed."

"I did the best I could," Clint shrugged. "You got a medkit, Stark? 'Cause I think I've fractured a couple of ribs."

"Yeah there's one in the lab," Tony replied. "You and Pep need to be seen to so we can do that now we've all got each other up to speed. I can get Bruce to help you, he's done loads of medical stuff while hiding out around the world."

"It's fine, I can do it myself," Clint said, pointedly ignoring the death glare that Natasha sent him. "What? I fight people with machine guns and super powers with a weapon from the paleolithic era, I know first aid."

"You're getting help Clint," Natasha rolled her eyes. "This is non-negotiable. We all need medical help, anyway."

-Q-

Fifteen minutes later found them all in the lab, various injuries attended to. The Winter Soldier was zip-tied and chained (Tony, being an engineer, had had a few chains lying around, though, granted they were usually used for machines) to a chair in the middle of the room.

The Winter Soldier woke up and opened its eyes to find a number of weapons pointed at it. It forced itself not to lash out, this must be the lab, and these must be its handlers and technicians. It didn't know what would happen if it did try to harm anyone, but it had a feeling that it had done so before, and the consequences had been problematic.

"Ready to comply," it said automatically.

 _ **On to the next chapter in this hurried upload**_


	15. A Person?

_**THIS IS THE THIRD CHAPTER I'VE UPLOADED TODAY. If you haven't read the last two go back and do so or nothing will make sense.**_

 _ **19/01/20 - Chapter 3 of 3**_

 **Chapter Fifteen - A Person?**

The Winter Soldier found itself drifting into consciousness with an incredible pain throbbing through its skull. But wait. No. Pain was irrelevant, it couldn't be allowed to impede functionality. The pain was ignored and the rest of its injuries assessed. Minimal injuries that would cause no restrictions to functionality. Good.

What was troubling was the lack of responsiveness from its arm. The Asset could feel the weight of it pulling on its shoulder, but it could not even make the arm twitch. It had likely been turned offline for repair work, the asset realised. It thought that that was unusual, though it was hard to be sure if it really was. The Winter Soldier did have memories of shutting out excruciating pain as the technician worked on the arm. It didn't seem normal to turn it off when the Asset would be still and compliant either way.

Then again, the chair was different from usual too. It was more comfortable, and, instead of the normal restraints, the Asset seemed to be tied up, by the feel of it, with thin (possibly plastic) strips, and what were definitely metal chains.

New handlers, perhaps. Or ones that it couldn't remember.

Initial assessment done, it opened its eyes to find a number of weapons pointed at it.

It forced itself not to lash out, this must be the lab, and these must be its handlers and technicians. It didn't know what would happen if it did try to harm anyone, but it had a feeling that it had done so before, and the consequences had been problematic.

"Ready to comply," it said automatically. Several of the personnel flinched back.

That wasn't a good sign. The Soldier was unsure as to what it had done wrong but it knew instinctively that if it upset the personnel it would be punished, or worse, wiped. It waited to see what would happen. Nothing did, there was just silence, until:

"Bucky?" questioned a tall, blond man.

The Asset tilted its head, there was something important there, something it was supposed to remember.

The memories came back in flashes. It had been ordered to assassinate the President. It had done so. It had tried to take out the man causing the mist, only to be attacked by this one. This man had fought the Asset on the roof. This man had likely been its handler in the past. But that had been the past, and Pierce had been yelling furiously through the com-link that the Soldier was to eliminate its past handler. Then the Asset had been held in invisible bonds it couldn't escape from, and after that there had been a sharp pain, then nothing.

The Asset frantically considered its predicament. It had been taken by its old handler and his allies. It should obey its old handler. However, its new handler had told it to kill its old handler and it should obey its new handler, especially as it had more memories of Pierce than it did the tall blond man. The consequences would be dire were it to disobey Pierce in such a way. But, its arm was disabled and it was trapped, it couldn't kill its old handler yet. The most suitable solution was complying, at least for the moment.

"Ready to comply," it promised the blond man.

The blond man looked as if he were in pain. That did not bode well. "Buck, you don't need to comply," he told the Asset, his voice shaking.

The Asset... the Bucky... frowned. What else was it meant to do?

"We sort of do want him to comply though, don't we, to avoid the destruction of my lab and everyone in it?" the one with dark hair and an odd beard said.

' _Him_ to comply', what did the man mean by that? It seemed that either there was a person the man who owned the lab wanted the compliance of too, or the man thought that the S... the Bucky was a person. And that wasn't right at all.

"Bucky wouldn't."

"That's why we chained him up and are pointing guns at him, is it?"

The Bucky opened its mouth to promise that it would comply and not hurt anyone or destroy the lab, and clarify that it was not a person, before shutting it again. The Bucky was not allowed to speak unless spoken to.

The blond man sighed. "You're right, Tony, I'm sorry. Let's see how much he remembers then." He looked down at the gun in his hands. "Look, I can't keep holding this, someone else is gonna have to take it." The man holding a bow and arrow reached out and took it from him. "Thanks... right, Bucky, how much do you remember about me?"

"We fought after I had killed the President. You recognised me, you called me Bucky. You seem familiar, I thought you were my handler, but you said you were my friend. It is probable that 'friend' must mean something similar to 'handler'."

"Bucky, I am not y..."

The red-haired woman who had been sitting quietly in the corner, pointing a gun at the Bucky, shoved its handler/friend out of the way and stared down at it. "Steve, you're going to let me do the interrogation from now on, you're not going to get us anywhere."

"Fine," Steve replied, clenching his jaw and folding his arms. The Bucky stared up at the woman. She must be Steve's superior if he were taking orders from her.

"Why do you have gaps in your memories?"

It stared at her. Surely that was a trick question. She must know. What sort of test was this?

"Of course, we _do_ know why you have gaps, we just want to know if you do too. To see if you are in good working order after the EMP, to see if you can still be a useful asset to us."

Good, it was still called the Asset as well as the Bucky, that made things less confusing. And her explanation made a lot of sense, so it replied, "When I displease my handlers, when I malfunction, they need to clear my memory, so they prep me, put me in the chair and wipe my mind to start afresh."

It wanted to ask her if they were going to do the same. But that was stupid, because the Asset didn't have _wants_. And it knew the answer, anyway, it would be wiped. When, it didn't know. But it was inevitable, it was procedure.

"What do you remember since you were last wiped?" the woman asked.

"It was just over a month ago. I had likely been in cryo shortly before as my body temperature was below optimal levels. They needed to reprogramme me as I had forgotten many things such as proper mission procedure and how an asset should conduct itself. I remember how now though," the Bucky added quickly, and then froze, anticipating a backhand at the very least. Trying to reassure superior officers was something people did, not something that the Asset was permitted to do, or should even be able to do. Nothing happened, which was strange, perhaps they would tally up all of the Bucky's infractions and make it learn how to be a better Bucky later. "I was told everything I needed to know and then I was sent out to assassinate President Ellis," it continued.

"How did they teach you?" the woman questioned, her eyes narrowing.

The Bucky responded. It didn't matter that it would rather forget how it had been reminded to be a useful Asset, it wasn't meant to have preferences and it knew to follow orders. It was halfway through the first sentence when it was interrupted by the sound of screeching metal. It turned to see Steve, a piece of twisted metal from the workbench crumpled in his hand, blood dripping from between his clenched fingers.

"Steve!" the woman snapped.

The Asset's chest clenched in fear for the man. Why fear? Because it was forbidden to damage the property of a superior officer, it wasn't certain of the consequences for a person and not an asset but it knew they were bad. But still, it shouldn't be reacting like this, it must be really malfunctioning.

"Bozhe moy, if you can't..."

More blood dripped from between the man's fingers. Must protect Steve, must protect Steve, must protect Steve. Small Steve, bleeding Steve, in an alley, surrounded by trash, being kicked into the dirt by six people twice his size. "Don't hurt him!" he yelled before he could stop himself.

Everybody turned to look at him and the Asset crumpled. It should not have done that. It would be wiped for sure now. But _why_ had it done that. Why had it said those words? And in such a strange accent too. It had felt nice though, the words had rolled off his tongue - _its_ tongue! As it stared at the woman, waiting patiently for her reaction, the Bucky wondered if being wiped was a good idea, it might stop it from acting like a person, maybe it had been around them for too long and was starting to emulate them. That would not do. And it shouldn't have opinions on whether or not it wanted to be wiped anyway, that was not for it to decide.

"Well, what do you know," Tony said.

"Bucky," Steve whispered, and the Asset could see the piece of metal clattering to the floor.

"You know what, I think you're right, I think he is in there," said the archer.

"Just how much, is the question." the woman replied, staring at the Asset appraisingly.

"There's enough, because that, that right there, that was Bucky," Steve said, before walking over to the Bucky... or was it just 'Bucky'? He had always been 'The Asset' or 'The Winter Soldier', even though people called him 'Asset' or 'Soldier'. But maybe 'Bucky' wasn't ever meant to have a 'the' in front of it? It willed itself stop thinking, that wasn't important.

"Bucky," Steve told him seriously. "I know you're in there, and we're gonna get you out. Because whenever they wiped you or they punished you, they did that because you were still there, inside, still fighting, and we're gonna get you out. And we're not gonna hurt you, we're not gonna wipe you, because you're a person, Buck, you're my best friend, and you don't deserve anything that's happened to you. We're gonna get you back."

 _ **I really hope you all enjoyed those chapters.**_

 _ **Also, I'm gonna be honest. One of the reasons I hadn't uploaded them was because irl kept me very busy, another reason is, I feel like if basically no one cares about this story, then why bother taking the time to write it and format it and share it, I could just keep it up in my head or on my computer for myself. I got one review on chapter 12 (from a friend from Tumblr, so who I could just send the chapters to there), I'm hoping more than one person liked that chapter, but, frankly, how am I meant to know? Views tell you if people looked at the chapter, as an author, I have**_ **no idea** _ **whether that means that someone has read the whole chapter or read the first three lines and then thought 'nope'. Of course, I more than understand that people tend to care much less about a story if it's updated sporadically, as the connection you feel to the story and memory of the plot fades over time, I also realise that people naturally will loose interest in a story as the plot unfolds, as what I want to write is not what everyone wants to read.**_

 _ **Also, this message does not mean that I'm not grateful to all the reviews I've received in the past, hopefully my replies to them will show you that I really am. Also, I'm very happy with the follows and the favourites, but as I didn't get any for ages after the last chapter was published it left me thinking, well, no new people are enjoying this, and how on earth am I meant to know if the old people are?**_

 _ **I would appreciate it if you guys left a small review, like literally a word or two, just to show that you've reached the end of the chapter and you're enjoying what you're reading.**_

 _ **Thank you very much,**_

 _ **StardustOwl.**_


	16. Getting Information

**Hey guys, I'm sorry for the delay. I know lockdown is meant to be a productive writing time for people but it seriously turned my life upside down, I lost my job and had like a day's notice to shove my things in a suitcase and move countries and back in with my parents. So, I felt displaced and depressed and not in the head-space for writing. Before that it was writer's block. I know where I am. I know where I need to be in the end, but I'm having trouble getting between those two points. Sorry.**

 **What's happened in the last few chapters?**  
 **\- Bucky (well, the Winter Soldier) assassinated the President**  
 **\- Steve fought him and our heroes managed to stop him from getting away**  
 **\- Tony found out Hydra was behind the attacks.**  
 **\- Loki and Thor (both temporarily), the kids, Jane and Erik have gone to Asgard**  
 **\- Natasha, Clint, Pepper and Happy arrived in Malibu having had their evening ruined by a bunch of Hydra agents trying to kill them**  
 **\- A very confused and brainwashed Asset wakes up in Malibu. Some of Bucky's personality manages to shine through when he thinks Steve is in danger**

 **What happened earlier in the story?**  
 **\- Everyone's living in Malibu together**  
 **\- Tony and Loki find Captain America**  
 **\- Steve wakes up in the 21st century, he comes downstairs to find a) a room full of people (some of which are blue) b) that most of his friends are dead. Fun times! :|**  
 **\- Steve and Tony get off to a shaky start but they have a tentative friendship going at the moment**  
 **\- Tony, Loki, Bruce, Erik and Jane have helped to create an Einstein Rosen bridge.**  
 **\- Darcy has been on Asgard, and helping to negotiate the JAM (Jotunheim, Asgard, Midgard) Agreement**  
 **\- Hydra are worried about this development and think that it will affect their plans for controlling the world. The Winter Soldier gets woken up**  
 **\- Also, Sleipnir starts school and things go interestingly ^^**

 **Thank you guys for your continued support! Love you all!**

 **Btw Pepper, Bruce and Happy are still upstairs having tea and biscuits :)**

 **I should probs say I do like Natasha, Tony just doesn't**

 **10/05/20**

 **Chapter Sixteen - Getting Information**

Tony looked up at Bucky as he scanned the assassin for electromagnetic signals. Bucky's dead eyes stared straight ahead, he had gone back to his eerie silent self since his outburst a few minutes earlier.

Tony moved the handheld scanner (designed to emit every type of ray he could think of) up and down Bucky's metal arm again and thought. Did that outburst really prove that he was Bucky? It proved that there was something a bit more human beneath the Winter Soldier's robotic exterior, sure, but, was that more human piece of him Bucky? Tony calculated the odds in his head. With the information available he put the likelihood of the man in front of him being Bucky at 84.672%. That was good, right?

He stepped backwards and put the scanner down on the desk behind him. "What do we got, J?"

"There does seem to be another tracker that the Mark VI missed earlier, but I do not expect there to be any more. There also seem to be several traps embedded into his arm, dangerous for him and anyone else who tries to remove the arm without the proper knowledge. I believe I can figure them out though. I am running the calculations now, Sir."

"Thanks, Jarvis."

"We should probably take a look at his brain," said Natasha from where she was sitting casually on a workbench. Even relaxed she looked dangerous, like a tiger observing everything, ready to pounce at a moment's notice.

"What! How!?" Steve demanded, appalled. Tony fought the urge to laugh.

"By building an MRI scanner or something. Relax, Steve, we're not gonna open up his head!"

Steve nodded awkwardly.

"Right, time to build a mind scanning helmet thing…." Tony trailed off, his mind suddenly alight with swirling possibilities.

"And that'll take how long?" Clint asked, raising his eyebrows and sipping on a cup of black coffee. "We've still got Hydra to worry about."

Tony shrugged, only really half listening as designs flickered through his brain. "Hmmm… an hour, tops." Clint snorted in disbelief and choked on his coffee. Tony smirked. "I brought a new element into existence in this lab in seven hours. I can create the most accurate brain scanner the world has ever seen in one."

"He can?" Clint whispered.

"He has a very high opinion of himself," Natasha said. Tony pointedly ignored her.

"He's Tony, of course he can," Steve said, and Tony busied himself making blueprints in his mind and did absolutely not feel his heart swell slightly at this.

"Before you get too engrossed in that, Sir, I think you should take a look at this," Jarvis interrupted and Tony grimaced and forcibly applied the brakes in his mind. Seriously. Just as he was getting into the swing of things!? Bright numbers flickered to life in the hologram that was appearing in front of him. "It's the updated casualty lists. All the attacks that have been linked to Hydra."

Tony let out a low whistle as he scanned down the list. 10,000 already. The sense of horror and failure that rose in his brain was overtaken by a wave of fury. "This was caused by our negligence," he spat. "This was caused because we didn't look into who we were working for enough!"

 _Your fault, just like Obie, your fault,_ his brain screamed at him. Tony tried to push the voice away, to drown it out and think about the materials needed for his brain scanner.

"We couldn't have known, Boss," Tony turned to see Happy standing in the doorway, and Pepper coming gingerly down the stairs behind him. It didn't look like Bruce was following them. That was probably for the best. " _You_ couldn't have known." Happy said that as if it were true, as if the lie were comforting.

"We should have done," Natasha hissed. "I worked for them for years, trying to scrub off the red on my ledger. I've just been staining it with more blood… after everything… still working for the 'bad guys'."

"Now just you all stop right there," Pepper commanded, her voice cutting through the accusatory fog conquering Tony's mind. "You're all being ridiculous and it's getting us nowhere. SHIELD has done good things, and you've done good things for SHIELD, and you know it. SHIELD was Hydra, yes, but it was also SHIELD. Not every single one of its operations was done for some nefarious Hydra ulterior motive, because not every single important person in SHIELD was Hydra." _They might be now_ , Tony thought, _they probably killed the good ones._ "Natasha, I know for a fact that you saved a hundred children last week from being killed by the cronies of a provincial warlord. SHIELD? Hydra? Doesn't matter. You did that. You _chose_ to do that. And you did the right thing. What you did was good. Yes, you may have helped Hydra over the years, but that doesn't change the fact that you stopped the assassination of Canada's Prime Minister a few months ago."

"He's dead now," Tony said on impulse.

"They were probably waiting for the right time to assassinate him," Clint said gloomily.

"Guys," Pepper snapped. "You can sit and mope or you can think about all the good things SHIELD has done, take out Hydra, then figure out the bad things that Hydra have done in SHIELD's name and try to fix them."

"She has a point," Happy said.

Tony forced down his urge to lash out at them, it wouldn't have helped anything, and they _were_ right.

"Yeah, okay," he said.

"What do you know about these figures, these casualties, Bucky," Natasha snapped. It was obvious that Steve remained uncomfortable with her acting like this, and honestly, Tony kinda was too, but for mostly different reasons. But it had to be done. Bucky seemed to respond better to orders.

"Hydra is shaping the century," Bucky replied, his voice monotone.

"Does it not bother you that over 10,000 people are dead?" Steve asked, clearly in distress.

The Winter Soldier stared blankly at him, this was obviously something that he was never asked, unless it were asked as a trick, of course.

"That those that you had to work for caused those deaths?" he continued, clearly desperate to see another flicker of humanity within. There was a part of Tony which hoped this tactic didn't work. There would probably be nothing like coming back to yourself only to rip your brain apart again with the knowledge that your actions had helped to destroy thousands upon thousands of lives. It could only make him shut down further.

Bucky remained silent.

"Answer him," Natasha snapped.

"No," Bucky replied, his voice eerily even. "They were enemies of Hydra. Enemies of Hydra do not deserve to live. You have to remember that."

Natasha nodded, her face blank. Tony hated her, hated that she could do that, hated to think about how she might be manipulating Pepper with those skills.

"Would you kill us Bucky?" Steve asked earnestly. Bucky flinched bodily at this question. Hmmm, so Steve's questioning hadn't forced whatever human part of Bucky was there down even further. That was good. "You couldn't right, at least not me, you proved it earlier."

Bucky stared at Steve.

"Answer him, Asset."

"Nat, stop!" Steve yelled.

"I'm doing what's necessary," she hissed. Then turned to Bucky again. "Whatever comes out of your mouth better not be a lie."

Bucky stared at her wildly for a second before all trace of emotion disappeared. "I don't know," his voice was flat, "The orders, the directives, they are mixing, contaminating each other. I am malfunctioning. Pierce told me to kill you, as the handler he must be obeyed. Yet before Steve was that, or, 'my friend', he said. Earlier I wanted to disobey my handler, I wanted to protect him, not kill him. The Asset should be wiped, it-"

Bucky abruptly cut off, evidently fearing he'd said far, far too much.

"No, continue," Natasha ordered.

For a split second Bucky looked up at her, stricken, before lowering his eyes and saying, "The Asset is not authorised to recommend how it should be maintained."

"And what do you feel about that?"

"Nothing," said Bucky, a fraction of a second too quickly.

Natasha made a move as if to strike him and Bucky visibly flinched. Steve gave a yell of outrage.

"I feel something, too much. I am malfunctioning. I don't want to be wiped. I don't want to forget, but I want this all to stop! I don't want to have to feel like this. The Asset is not a person, the Asset is not meant to feel, to think, it was made to be an Asset, a tool, a weapon. Not to feel! Not this!"

Bucky was as tense as a wire. Tony watched him out of the corner of his eye as he assembled the pieces needed for the brain scanner.

"That's good. We want you to feel, Asset. We want you to act like a person."

Bucky opened his mouth and his head twitched to the side, as if he had been about to contradict her but had then thought better of it.

Steve's mouth dropped open at the change of tactics.

"You should be feeling emotions, because you are not just an asset. You were human, you felt like us, once, and you deserve to feel like a person again. You knew Steve from when you were human, before they wiped you, before they turned you into a tool."

"What if I don't want to be human, what if I don't want to feel!?" Bucky snapped, his old accent slipping into his retort. He looked like a wild animal, trapped and furious, struggling against his chains. "Even if what you're saying is true, if this is what human is, I don't want this. I can't feel like this, _I can't_. It's tearing me apart, breaking me. I can handle anything, I can endure anything else you want to do to me, but this, in my mind… what are you doing to my mind? Stop it! I won't be human! I c-"

Bucky tensed and stilled as Steve laid a hand on his flesh arm, the fight dying in his eyes.

"But you are, you're human, Buck. You feel emotions, you want things. Machines, tools, they don't do that. It'll get easier, I promise you. I'm with you, 'til the end of the line, like I've always been."

Bucky nodded, but, Tony could see looking up from his box of blowtorches and soldering irons, the fight had gone from his eyes, his face was blank again, like he'd retreated back through several layers of mental walls. In this state he'd agree to anything Steve said, but it would only be on autopilot.

"Give him time, buddy, he'll pick this being human thing up in no time," Tony said. "Now, come and hold these two parts together so I can solder them properly."

"Okay," Steve said, leaving his brain-fried amnesiac bestie with some reluctance.

"I think our next question should be 'who's Pierce'," Clint offered, twirling an arrow casually through his fingers. "His handler; are they someone we know? Someone in SHIELD? Is Pierce really their real name?"

"Could be someone like Alexander Pierce," Tony added, before hissing slightly as he burnt his right thumb.

"Shall we ask him?" Natasha questioned, and stepped in front of Bucky again. "Bucky?" No verbal response was given. "Bucky?" Tony still heard nothing. "Bu-"

"Hey!" Steve yelled, dropping the two pieces he was holding together.

"Oi! What the hell!?" Tony demanded as the pieces clattered to the floor and he almost lost his balance and fell on top of the iron. He glanced from where Steve was standing to where Natasha was frozen, her hand still raised in the air, her eyebrows arched.

"No," Steve said. "You can't tell him he's a person, that he's got a right to be treated like one, and then hit him to get answers from him."

Natasha looked wryly amused. "It's what he understands, Steve. He won't understand if you treat him well yet. We _need_ this information. If your 'friend' has to get a little hurt in the process then so be it."

"The quicker we treat him right, the quicker he recovers."

"Steve. He's one person. Think of all the people that have been killed already. _Ten thousand_ , Steve."

"We can't comprom-"

"Nat," Clint said softly. "He has a point. Everything you know about your life's been crashing down around your ears. I know it has. Mine has too. I know how you feel. But Bucky's had too much. We gotta make sure he heals right. A guy with his skill set and a fucked up head is a dangerous combination. Don't turn back into what they made you to be."

Natasha looked as if she were about to lash out but instead she sighed and rubbed her forehead. "What are we meant to do then? We can't let them kill more people."

"Well, I think you and I could do with a martini, come on," Pepper said, gesturing to the door. "In the meantime I'm sure Jarvis will be sorting through every available piece of information he can find, and, I'm sure he'll be much for reliable than a barely-functioning assassin."

"You're right," Natasha said. "Let's get a drink, God knows I need one."

"J," Tony said. "Compile a list of Pierces in SHIELD, and dig up everything you can on them.

"And get me everything you can find on Secretary Pierce."

Bucky's eyebrows twitched into a frown.

Interesting.

 _ **I hope you guys enjoyed that. I know that wasn't the best chapter I've ever written but please validate me all the same**_

 _ **Up next:** **Next up: Loki and Thor drop the kids (and Jane and Erik) off on Asgard**_

 _ **-Hydra take their next steps**_

 _ **-The Avengers + Loki assemble!**_

 _ **Take care of yourselves guys, stay safe, stay at home wherever possible, protect your healthcare system from collapsing under strain, and save lives. x**_


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